A Change of Heart
by FrozenAgent47
Summary: Not long after Twilight Sparkle was crowned princess, Equestria is thrown into peril once more by an ancient evil from a land not too far off. Going with her friends to save their world, the Elements of Harmony encounter more than they expected, and young Princess Twilight learns of something she'll never forget - for it's much stronger than friendship.
1. The Letter

** Hey guys! For those who know of me, I apologize for being idol for so long; life has been horrible to me lately. And for those who don't know me; you're in for a crazy ride.**

** Welcome to my first – and definitely not last - My Little Pony fanfic!** **:D Okay, before we get this started off, I just want to let you all know I thank you for taking the time to check out my work.**

** I'm also gonna thank Hasbro and those peeps who came up with the amazing idea of MLP from the very start. AND I'm going to thank Lord Lycaon, a fellow FanFiction brony, for helping me along the way with his wise words of wise wisdom. Truthfully, I'm nervous that I won't finish this, but you guys won't allow that, right? …RIGHT?! *Eyes twitch.* **

** I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic or any of the characters displayed in the franchise; they're all owned by Hasbro and probably some other company-thingies. I Really wish I did, though… :c **

**Well, without further ado, I give to you my masterpiece in progress. Enjoy!**

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It was a magical morning in the city of Canterlot as the recently crowned princess Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes. Hearing the sound of the birds chirping happily across the sky and smelling the fresh summer air from her window, she let a weak smile form upon her face as she sat up in her large, luxurious bed, her hair sticking out like a brush on the top of her head. Not knowing this, she let out a yawn and stretched as she made her way out of bed, rubbing her eyes as well. As her hooves gently tapped against the shiny marble floor, she slowly stepped over to her window, where she got the perfect view of her home town.

Looking down from the window, she saw the streets of Canterlot were full of life. She could see almost everything from her point of view, which was a reserved room for her in her mentor and teacher, Princess Celestia's castle. There were foals all over town, giggling and playing happily, reminding Twilight of the past she never had. She always used to study and whenever – before she could go back to memory lane, a knock on her door was heard. It was her number one assistant, Spike, a baby dragon who Twilight brought into Equestria alone (yes, with her magic). "Hey Twilight, you awake?"

She turned to the door and spoke back to Spike, actually a bit relieved to hear a voice that wasn't screaming. The Crowning Celebration the day before was the biggest party ever, and truthfully, it was going to be a while before she could attend another party. "You can come in, Spike," she groggily replied.

The baby dragon entered the room with bloodshot eyes, stumbling slightly as he closed the door behind him. "Best. Night. Ever." He nearly fell onto the cold, shiny floor until Twilight caught him with her magic, a sparkly light pink aura surrounding him as well as the lavender alicorn's horn that was hidden by her hair.

While using her magic, she raised Spike into the air and placed him over her bed. Dropping him onto the soft, warm sheets that welcomed him to paradise, she turned around and stepped to her dresser and gasped as she looked in the mirror; her hair was horrible! She quickly took a comb with her magic and began running it through her dark purple hair. "The Ceremony went well, I guess…" She tried to start off a conversation as she combed out her hair, allowing her horn to come into sight.

Spike nodded, "I mean, why not? I got to dance with the most beautiful creature in Equestria last night." His eyes turned into hearts as he spoke about his crush Rarity, a white unicorn who specialized in fashion and dress making. Now falling into a trance of love, his voice became dreamy, "She even kissed me…"

Twilight rolled her eyes and sighed, "I'm glad you had a great time Spike, but I'm sure Rarity didn't kiss you." After finishing combing her hair, she turned around and looked towards the baby dragon who was stretched out across the bed, preparing to fall back to sleep.

The dragon groaned, "Okay fine, she didn't kiss me, but that doesn't mean she won't one day." Hope filled his heart as he imagined the one day that he'd make his move and Rarity would finally accept him as a handsome, manly dragon and take him as her own and love him and kiss him and -

"But Spike, if you think about it, she'll never kiss you." Twilight was always at the ready to stop Spike's childish dreams, but still, Spike's love would never fade for Rarity.

"What?! She definitely will!" Spike sat up in defense for his own feelings, folding his short purple arms across his faded green underbelly.

"Ah-ah, no she won't. You're just a _baby _dragon, Spike." She said matter-of-factly, closing her eyes as she did so.

"Will so!" The dragon slammed his hands on the blankets, making barely a sound with them. What he didn't know was that he started a very childish argument.

"Will not!"

"Will so!"

"Will _not!_"

"Will –" Spike's answer was cut off by the sound of knocking at the door.

Twilight gasped slightly and turned towards the door, clearing her throat, "Um… Come in!" The baby dragon laid back down and closed his eyes; he was done arguing. He was going back to sleep.

A white stallion dressed in golden armor opened the door slowly with a light blue magic aura that came from his horn. With a light, raspy voice, the male spoke, "Your highness." He took a bow towards Twilight.

With a confused expression, it took her a while to remember that she was a princess. She blinked a few times and realized the fact that one of Equestria's most elite soldiers were bowing to her. To _her_! "Uh… Rise… Guard?" She obviously had not known what to call him; maybe that was something she could ask Celestia when she started learning how to be a princess.

The white unicorn rose to his hooves and spoke, "Princess Celestia requires you in the main hall."

"Okay, can you tell her I'll be down immediately?"

"Of course, your majesty." The guard turned around and closed the door behind him as he left with his magic.

She turned around to Spike and spoke to the nearly sleep dragon, "Come on, Celestia needs us." With her magic, she took her royal tiara and placed it on her head.

Spike groaned and waved at her, rolling on his side away from Twilight, "She needs _you_, that guard said nothing about 'Spike the Dragon'."

Twilight sighed in annoyance as she rushed over to the bed and bit down on the baby dragon's tail, pulling him into the air. She ignored his cry for her to drop him as she opened the door with her magic and closed it the same way, entering the hallway. The princess shrugged off the weird glares she received from the guards patrolling the halls; she had a ruler to meet with.

… A whole three floors of carrying Spike later…

"So sorry… I couldn't… Make it… Here sooner… Princess… Celestia…" Twilight burst into the hall, dropping Spike onto the red carpet violently as she gasped for air.

The tall, white alicorn simply stared at the younger princess with wide, light magenta eyes. Thing like this; she just wasn't used to.

Twilight stumbled to the elder princess and dropped by her hoof and hugged it. "Forgive me…"

Shaking her head slightly, Celestia giggled and placed her hoof on Twilight's head, stroking her dark purple hair softly. "It's nothing dire, Twilight Sparkle; I just wanted to talk to you and Luna. You didn't have to bring Spike along, either."

Spike stood up from the floor and angrily shouted as he headed back towards Twilight's room, "Told 'ya! I'm going to sleep." Twilight looked back to Spike with a scoff and wanted to say something back, but she decided not to; rudeness in front of a princess wasn't a good impression, especially if you're not a cute, lovable baby dragon.

Celestia giggled slightly as the large door to the hall shut, its slam bouncing off of the walls and into the rest of the castle, "Oh Spike just gets cuter as he grows, doesn't he?"

Twilight stood and narrowed her eyebrows at her mentor, "No disrespect princess, but really? Of all dragons, _Spike_ gets cuter?" Her voice was flat, showing her obvious anger towards the young dragon.

"You don't have to call me 'Princess', Twilight, you're one too, you know."

She blinked and realized that she counted as royalty too, just like Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. "I don't know why, but I keep forgetting that…"

"Don't worry; it'll sink in soon enough. Did you enjoy your Crowning Celebration?" Celestia gestured towards the other end of the hallway, suggesting that they should walk together as they talked. She turned around and began walking, turning her head back to look at Twilight.

The small, lavender alicorn followed right behind her as she answered her question, "Of course! I just wished you were able to be there…" Sadness trailed slightly at the end of Twilight's sentence, for she truly wished Celestia could be there for the party.

Celestia apologized instantly, "I'm sorry Twilight. I had gotten some news from another region far off. It was very important."

"Oh, it's okay, I mean, I still had a good time. I don't see how I couldn't have fun with my friends there! And Luna," Twilight practically burst out into laughter, finally reaching her truly open side with Celestia, "she's a party master! She danced, played games, did astonishing tricks with the moon, oh my…" The small princess stopped and stared to the ceiling with a smile, remembering the beautiful sights she'd seen that night. "It was amazing."

Glad to know that her star pupil enjoyed the most important night of her life simply made her happy. "Well it's good to know that you enjoyed yourself Twilight. I'm proud of you. I know you're going to be a swell princess."

Twilight blushed in embarrassment, "Oh, I don't know Celestia. What if Equestria needs me to be more than a princess or a friend? What if they need me to be a hero?" She stopped and looked her teacher in the eyes, worry trailing across her face. She was ready to be a princess, but she wasn't necessarily sure if she could reach the expectations her subjects would like her to reach.

"You already are," with a warm smile, Celestia let her wing extend from her side and gently wrap around Twilight.

Before the younger alicorn could say something back, the doors burst open once more, but this time it was Luna who had something to say. As she slid on the floor in her blue glass slippers, she yelled to Celestia, "Sister, I've news!" Her face was full of worry and dismay, assuring both princesses that the news was nowhere near good.

Celestia and Twilight turned around quickly, both staring at Luna with wide concerned eyes. The elder princess spoke. "What is it, Luna?"

"I know where the letter yesterday came from! I know who sent it!" Luna was about to jump out of her coat as she shouted.

The elder princess trotted over to her younger sister and took gentle hold of her chin with her hoof. She then stared Luna in her dark blue eyes and spoke slowly, "Little sister, calm down."

She stopped nodded, taking a deep breath before continuing, the seriousness and urgency still tracing in her tone, "There was a colt, he had a dream and it was about the letter you were given yesterday."

Celestia was still confused, "What do you mean?"

"He…" Luna took a deep breath and prepared to tell the story of what she had saw in the colt's dream, "He dreamt about a battle - a battle between the civilians of his city and its ruler; Sir Blackheart."

"Wait," the elder princess suddenly interrupted Luna and turned to Twilight, "Twilight Sparkle, go to the main library and look for a book titled 'Darkadian History'. Hurry!" The name Sir Blackheart sounded _too_ familiar.

With no hesitation, the young princess nodded and burst off into a full gallop to the doorway.

As the doors closed, Celestia changed her glare to her younger sister, who seemed oblivious as well as responsible to what was happening, "Continue, Luna."

The dark purple alicorn did as told, "The note... He sent it! He hopes he got it to us before it was 'too late'!"

Celestia went silent as she stared at the ground and began thinking of what all of it could mean. As she thought, it got quiet, and the hollow halls seemed to whisper. "Oh Celestia, what's on your mind today?"

The princess looked up with narrowed eyes and yelled, "Discord, now is _not_ the time!"

The draconequus instantly appeared and backed away from Celestia, hiding behind Luna with 'fearful' eyes. "Luna, why is Tia being so mean to me?" Tears welled up in his eyes as he prepared to sob.

Luna turned around and kindly stared at Discord, her voice calm and relaxed, "Discord, as my sister said; this is not the time. The fate of Equestria could be at hand."

"Again?" He said blandly as he stood, his facial expression changing to nearly annoyed. He began flapping his wings, floating above the floor gently then. "Really?" Taking a toothpick, he placed it in his mouth and asked, "So, who is it this time?"

"Blackheart. He's awake." Celestia replied to Discord's question, her tone stern and somber.

"He's still alive?" Before Discord decided to come to the inner parts of Equestria, he built his miniature army of chaotic ponies. Blackheart was one of his most successful students.

"Most likely. Someone from Darkadia sent me a letter stating that his arrival would be coming soon. A young colt named Nightfall."

"That's... Interesting." Discord snapped and teleported behind Celestia, leaning against her back when he reappeared. He was acting like he didn't give a care in Equestria. Truth was: he didn't. "So how are we gonna stop him?"

Before either of the princesses could answer, Twilight burst into the room, the book floating right above her, the usual dark pink aura surrounding it. "Celestia, I have the book!"

Quickly, Celestia looked up and took the book with her magic, engulfing it with a bright gold aura. Letting the book float in front of her face, she opened it and flipped directly to the page that read, '**Evil Rulers**'. She read aloud, "A long time ago, after Nightmare Moon was sent away…"

Luna looked to the ground guiltily, wanting to forget her reign as the pony she never wanted to be.

"… There were remnants of her evil that lurked within Equestria. These evils were consumed by a colt who craved for power and control. His name was Sir Blackheart, the second ruler of Darkadia, a region of chaos Discord created before he came to Equestria, which was much smaller than it is now. Being young with our magical experience, Luna and I could never go there, for its evil was stronger than our magic, so we were never able to purify it."

The draconequus smiled brightly and waved to his imaginary crowd, whispering enthusiastically, "That was me!" Saying this simply proved once more that he gave not one care.

Celestia closed the book and set it aside as she finished the story from memory. "Blackheart wanted more land, more ponies to control, so he came to Canterlot. I fought him off, but I couldn't banish him like how Luna and I did with Sombra; I was just one mare. I placed a spell on him that laid him to rest for a century and told my most elite squadron of royal guards to set him back in Darkadia. It was imperative that he couldn't escape, so I ordered the guards to make home there and after every 100 years, a descendant of the first guards would have to place the spell on Blackheart. It's been so long… I thought they had everything under control, but from the last letter I was given, something has gone wrong."

Discord suddenly appeared behind Celestia with a bright flash and ran his paw through her magically waving hair. "Did you think of that _all_ by yourself?" His voice had a sense of sarcasm as he playfully joked with the princess.

Celestia shot the Spirit of Chaos a look of utter seriousness, causing him to draw his paw from her hair and step back some.

Twilight stepped forward, "But princess, what's there to worry about? Now that you and Luna are together, you can banish him away like Sombra or Nightmare Moon!"

Luna whimpered; the name 'Nightmare Moon' sending chills down her spine.

"You forget Twilight, we have to stay here; no one else can control the sun or moon while we're gone." Celestia looked to Twilight, trying her best to make sense of it all.

"But –"

She was cut off by another one of Celestia's sentences. "Darkadia is too far for Luna and I to go together and still control the sun and moon, and we will definitely not wait for Blackheart to return just to banish him."

"There has to be a way…" The young, lavender alicorn stared at the marble floor and began thinking. Silence filled the hall. Even Discord knew not what to do. Suddenly, she looked up with a gasp, "The Elements of Harmony!" Little did she know her friends had left to Ponyville while she was asleep; they all had busy schedules. Applejack had her apple farm to tend to, Pinkie had multiple booked parties, Rarity had a new line of dresses to create, Fluttershy needed to care for her animals, and Rainbow Dash had to train at the Wonderbolts Academy. They had actually told Spike to tell Twilight that they had to leave early and that they were _absolutely sorry_ (Rarity speaking) that they had to go so soon.

The draconequus groaned, "Oh, of course; _those_ things!"

Celestia smiled brightly and ignored Discord, "Yes, that's perfect, Twilight! I'll have your friends meet you here as soon as possible."

Suddenly, a black mist flew into the room, catching everypony's attention. It abruptly stopped in front of Celestia and burst into a letter that was covered by a black aura. No one spoke as the elder princess took a deep, silent breath as she opened the letter, her gold magic aura consuming the crumpled sheet of paper.

She began to read the note that was sent from Darkadia and from the looks from it, by the same pony as well. "_Princess Celestia, you must come at once! Sir Blackheart is awake, and he's destroying everything! Please, you must save us!"_

Celestia let the letter drop as she looked to Twilight, "There's no time to gather your friends or the Elements of Harmony. I'm going to send you and Luna as well as a squadron of my royal guards to Darkadia. You and Luna will use your magic to defeat Blackheart once and for all when you arrive; you're the only two with magic powerful and pure enough to defeat him."

Twilight's eyes went wide with surprise as well as fear, she wasn't ready for something so sudden and important, "W-Wait, what about you and the moon and the sun?"

Luna finally decided to stand and stepped beside Twilight, agreeing with the younger princess, "Yes, who else can control the moon?"

"I can do it alone, I've done it before, remember?" Celestia replied.

Discord flew in between the ponies, his left claw and right paw behind his head as he backstroked slowly through the air, "_Or_ I can help…"

All three princesses looked to him with grim faces and said in unison, "Discord."

"You must have forgotten that I changed day and night within minutes before I was reformed."

Twilight instantly gasped as she remembered the phenomena the draconequus performed, "That's right! Discord, you _did _change night and day like that didn't you?!" A smile crept upon her face as she came to realize that things were getting closer and closer to working out.

He smirked and snapped, causing the sun to slide away as the moon took place in the sky. Darkness covered Equestria and crickets began to chirp. Snapping once more, Discord summoned the sun, bringing light upon the lands again.

"Perfect! Twilight, Luna, pack your things and go to the town square. The guards will meet you there." Celestia demanded, causing both of the alicorns to rush to their rooms and prepare for the journey they were to encounter. She knew that she was making quick choices, which were always the worst, but she had faith in her student and as well as her sister. Now all she needed to do was put Equestria on its defensive.

Twilight immediately stopped as she heard Celestia call her name. "Oh, and Twilight, bring Spike with you; I'll need someone to send me letters on what's happening in Darkadia while you're there!"

"I will!" With that, the small alicorn left the room. As the doors slammed, Celestia sighed and stared at the floor.

Discord stepped beside her and chuckled slightly, "Remind you of old times, Tia?" He gestured to the entire hall with his paw as he landed beside her, his feet tapping slightly against the cold marble.

The princess sighed and smirked slightly, trying her best to stay focused on the situation at hand. "Discord…"

"When Luna was just a little filly and you and I were just so cute and cuddly together?"

Celestia blushed, "Not now…"

"And when –"

"DISCORD!" She stared deeply into the draconequus's eyes as she shouted with an undeniably angry tone.

"Sorry," he whispered. It was quiet again. Even though Discord was a spirit made for chaos, he knew when to stop joking around - especially with Celestia.

The princess began walking towards the doorway; it was time to gather the guards. Discord followed right behind her, thinking about who-knows-what. Before opening the doors, she stopped and stared straight forward, whispering faintly, "I missed you."

Discord said nothing as he remembered what he and Celestia had when they were in their prime. And he gave it all up for chaos. Sure, it was his title, but there was something inside that simply said that chaos wasn't better than that feeling he had with the Equestrian princess. When he first arrived at Equestria, he built a bond with Celestia and heard a voice that said the bond he made was much better than the chaos he loved to create. He ignored it and gave up the first friend he would've had.

Celestia left the room with royal tears in her eyes, but she held them there. There was no time to cry for a friendship destined to fail; she had a world to save.

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**Aaaand there! I hope you guys enjoyed it, and even if you didn't, review – unless you're stupid lazy; I can understand that. 'Till next time… – ****_Your friendly neighborhood Frozen Agent._**


	2. The Brewing Storm

**You lucky people; you've got your second chapter quickly. I wish it could stay like this, but nah. I have a life too, you know. :c**

** Now, the story ****_really _****begins… I hope this satisfies you eager peeps. :3 – FrozenAgent. **

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Only ten minutes had passed after the letter from Darkadia came and yet Canterlot was setting up every defense they had. Discord and Celestia put up a force field around Equestria's capitol, not to mention that the she summoned Princess Cadance and Shining Armor from the Crystal Empire as well. They just hoped Twilight and the others would make it and stop Sir Blackheart in time so that the defenses wouldn't be necessary.

Trying her best to ignore the sound of guards readying for a battle they hoped not to come, Celestia stepped beside a golden carriage and began speaking to the baby dragon she knew well. "Spike, once you arrive, send me a letter on how strong Blackheart's magic is; there's no doubt he'll be using it after being asleep for so long."

Spike enthusiastically yelled from in between the princesses and raised his small fist, "You got it, princess!"

She then looked to the lavender alicorn with a small smirk. "Twilight, the guards will aid you when you confront him, and when given the chance, you and Luna shall strike him with the Banishing Spell."

Twilight looked down to Celestia from inside the golden carriage the guards would carry her in, trembling at the slightest, "Princess Celestia… I… I don't think I'm ready for this." Tears welled up in the young pony's eyes as she imagined the outcome of Equestria if she failed. She closed her eyes, dropped her head, and began sobbing; she was terrified. Sure, she fought an army of Changelings, but that was with her friends. She even fought multiple evil forces from millennia ago, but like before, that was with her friends. But now, she was fighting something stronger than her, more dangerous, and most likely better in magic than her – with_out_ her friends.

A hoof was placed on her chin and lifted her head up, following the beautiful, calming voice of her mentor. Celestia looked deep in Twilight's soft blue eyes and said, "I believe in you Twilight. We all do. Equestria's fate lies within your hooves now, and I know that you cannot fail us. Right?" She cracked a small smile, hoping to rejuvenate the lavender alicorn's hope.

She was victorious. As if on cue, the sun escaped from behind the sky's gray clouds and shone upon the carriage as Twilight instantly smiled back and raised her head, quickly wiping her tears from her face. Sitting up, she spoke back to the princess, her voice slightly croaky, "Right."

The carriage shook as the guards settled in, preparing to fly off. This was their signal to get ready to go. Celestia placed her hoof on Twilight's cheek and nodded. Though she said nothing, that nod meant more than a million words to the both of them.

One of the guards had finished settling in and stretched his wings out for flight like his brethren, looking back to both of the princesses, "We're ready, your highnesses." His voice was deep and scratchy, the tone that someone would expect from one of Equestria's most elite soldiers.

Luna held her hoof at him, speaking calmly, "One second." She then turned and looked over the side of the golden carriage, speaking to her sister, "I'll miss you, big sister."

"I'll miss you too, Luna. Good luck to all of you," she raised her voice as she commemorated the brave soldiers that were rushing into the danger as well. The guards raised their heads high, their pride and morale rising beyond the charts. "I believe in you all."

With that, Luna smiled at her and spoke two words as she looked back to the waiting guard, "Let's go." The carriage took off with a loud 'BOOM', blowing dust across the immediate area and letting the royal cart look like a simple blur of gold in the dark gray sky. The sun quickly faded away.

After watching her sister and star pupil leave Canterlot to save Equestria, Celestia sighed and turned around to find Discord weeping childishly into a handkerchief. She couldn't help but let out a small giggle. The moment was utterly serious; she knew that, but a crying draconequus who claimed to be the Spirit of Chaos was more than contradictory. It was funny.

Hearing the giggles come from the princess, Discord smiled and tossed the cloth aside, his tears disappearing like magic (well, because of magic). He flapped his wings and made his way beside the princess. "So what do we do now, Tia?"

Celestia was beginning to grow fond of her new nickname that only Discord dared to call her. If she wasn't called 'Your Highness' or 'Your Majesty', she was most likely called, 'Princess Celestia', but that draconequus was something else; a rule breaker. And though it was disrespectful to call royalty by a name that wasn't theirs, the princess loved it. With a small smirk she looked up to him and began walking towards the castle, "We keep the force field going until the threat is gone."

"That's going to be lot of magic, you know." Discord said as he followed behind her, holding a pencil in his paw and a chart in his claw. He showed her his math and pushed on his large nerd glasses that happened to appear on his face.

"I know. That's why I have you, Princess Cadance, and Shining Armor. You and I will work with the sun and moon while Shining Armor and Cadance will keep the force field running."

"But wait," the draconequus dropped his items and tossed the glasses aside. "What about my…" He stopped, almost struggling to let out the word as he thought of the ponies back in Ponyville. "Friends?"

She let a large smile creep upon her face as she verified in her mind that Discord referred to the Ponyville ponies as his _friends_; Celestia was thoroughly surprised. "Bring them as well as the Elements of Harmony; we'd best be safe than sorry. Plus, we could use a little joy around here." The battle-ready town was beginning to remind her of the famous Canterlot wedding, where Chrysalis, queen of the Changelings posed an imminent threat against the Equestrian capitol. Barely anypony cracked a smile until the wedding, which happened to be a disaster as well, but in the end, everything was alright. Something was different this time, though. Was it true that Princess Celestia was actually… Nervous?

"Got it." With a snap of his fingers, Discord was gone in a flash.

After watching her – she stopped and blinked as she realized this –_ friend_ teleport to Ponyville, Celestia looked up to the sky and saw a shiny crystal carriage coming down from the sky towards Canterlot, multiple squads of royal guards surrounding it. "Perfect. Now that Cadance and Shining Armor are here, we can make sure Canterlot is at its full defense."

**… Meanwhile, in Mid-Western Equestria (Fast fliers – I know.)…**

"So Luna… What do you think what we're up against?" Twilight asked over the wind that pushed against them while the carriage flew across the sky at amazing speeds.

Luna sighed and shook her head as she stared at the clouds, watching the faded moon so distant become smaller and smaller as they approached Darkadia. "I don't know… But I _do_ know that we'll defeat Sir Blackheart."

The younger princess smiled and said nothing back, only to look amongst the other side of the carriage, down to the green lands of the meadows below. She thought to herself with a large grin on her face, "_She's right! We __**will**__ beat this guy, whoever he is!"_ Twilight suddenly squeaked as she winced at the unexpected feel of two scaly hands wrap around her stomach. She tilted her head and questioned, "Spike?"

The baby dragon said nothing as he held tightly onto her; Twilight wasn't the only one a bit low on confidence about what was going to happen. She smiled warmly and wrapped her foreleg around his head, embracing him kindly. She whispered into his ear calmly, "It's going to be okay Spike, I'm here."

He nodded as he buried his face in her lavender coat, trying his best to keep his bearings. Twilight looked to Luna, who was already looking at her with her blue eyes. The younger princess began to speak, but her oncoming sentence was interrupted by an earsplitting roar of thunder. Flinching, both princesses looked forward and Spike dug his face even deeper in Twilight's coat. Right ahead, there was a rampaging storm on the outskirts of Equestria.

Suddenly, the carriage started to shake some; the storm's wind had begun to throw the guards' flight off track. One the guards looked back and yelled, "Your highnesses, we'll have to land! We can't make it much longer in this weather!"

Luna agreed, "Land the carri-" Her voice was cut off by a lightning bolt that slammed accurately into the side of the golden carriage. Millions of sparks flew into the air as everypony in the carriage screamed. As predicted, the carriage quickly tipped over and began falling at a breakneck speed.

Amongst screaming, Twilight was able to let out three words, "Everypony hold on!"

Up ahead in the midst of the pitch black storm was an alicorn as dark as night with glowing red eyes that practically screamed '**chaos**'. He was standing upon a cloud that grew bright with lightening and roared with thunder in front of the rest of the storm. With his wings spread out, Sir Blackheart chuckled evilly in triumph as he shot down the carriage that seemed of a high priority. He was the last of Discord's pupils, and it was time to make his teacher proud. Blackheart grinned hard as he saw far off in the distance, the city of Canterlot. He grumbled loudly and lowered his eyebrows as the onyx heart-shaped pendant that hung around his neck grew darker, a black light gleaming from inside of it. "Finally…"

* * *

A loud ringing filled the colt's ears as he attempted to stand up on the weakened wood floor, barely hearing his name being called by a muffled voice, "Nightfall!" He groaned and placed his hoof on his head, feeling a warm liquid run down the side of his head. He was hurt. The dark-coated colt came to consciousness when the feminine voice called him once more, now with a more pleading tone, "Nightfall, help me!" It was his younger sister.

Nightfall's heart skipped a beat as he jumped onto his hooves and frantically looked around, his dark purple eyes opening wide. He shouted over the sound of thunder and heavy rain, "Dawn! Dawn where are you?!" Ignoring the throbbing pain that seared through his head, the colt galloped to a pile of debris that used to be a part of the roof. He placed his snout under the wood and flipped it over, finding nothing.

His sister called once more, coughing as she did so, "I'm over here!" Turning to where he heard Dawn's voice, Nightfall saw the small white filly he called his younger sister. She was trapped behind a tipped over wardrobe. That was no problem to him, but the raging fire behind her was. Hunks of wood dropped from the ceiling around them, endangering them more than they already were.

The colt gasped and rushed quickly to the wardrobe, his hooves tapping loudly against the floor. Sparks of burning wood flew past him as he yelled to his sister, "I'm coming!" He hopped over the wardrobe and picked his younger sister up by her light blue tail with his mouth. Nightfall glanced shortly over to the scorching flames that licked at him and his sibling. With no hesitation, he made his way back over the wardrobe and gently placed his sister on the floor.

She screamed and wrapped her forelegs around his as the sound of thunder cracked through the sky. After finding his bearings, Nightfall looked back to the raging fire and picked up his sister once more. They had to leave.

It didn't take long for Nightfall to find a way into the flooding streets. Heavy rain splashed down on the two as they left their house that was on the brink of falling, washing the soot from both of their coats and the blood from the colt's mane. He looked back to the burning house and then to the remnants of the neighborhood. With his soaking wet dark blue mane hanging over one eye, Nightfall took a glance around him. Everything was destroyed. If a building wasn't already on the ground or smithereens, it was burning and preparing to fall. There were ponies, mares and stallions alike littered in the mud, not moving at all. Small streaks of red could be seen within the puddles of rain, bringing a few tears to Nightfall's eyes. It looked like everypony was gone.

Dawn had pointed her white hoof at the obviously deceased inhabitants of Darkadia. "B-Brother… Are they -"

Nightfall calmly cut off her sentence with his, silencing her. "Don't worry about it, okay? First, we need to find a way to Equestria…" Like a responsible older brother, he tried his best to keep his younger sibling's mind from wandering to the horrible concept of death. She simply wasn't ready for that.

"Like where Princess Celestia lives?" The young filly questioned her older brother with large, innocent purple eyes, now interested on the next topic.

The colt nodded and answered her question as kindly as possible, "Yes. We're going to need help to rebuild Darkadia, and the Equestrians are the only ones who can help."

Not knowing the seriousness of the situation at hand, Dawn cheered in the pouring rain while on her brother's back, "Yes! We're going to see a princess!"

Chuckling slightly, Nightfall agreed, beginning to step further into the muddied streets. "Yes, we're going to see a princess. But you have to stay calm; we've got a long way ahead of us."

She sighed and slumped down on his back, grumbling as her light blue mane soaked in the rain. "Man… This sucks." Thunder exploded in the sky, making her scream and wrap her forelegs around Nightfall's neck. Shaking his head, the colt had begun walking down the road, a small smirk on his face. He knew that the journey to Equestria wouldn't be easy or quick, so the first thing he planned to do is grab some supplies for the trip.

The two walked down the town's main road for what seemed like hours to the storage area of Darkadia, drenched in rain. While walking down the road, Nightfall's ears perked at the sound of voices coming from around the corner they were near. Luckily for him; One of them he was familiar with. "Father!" Nightfall exclaimed and rushed around the corner her heard the voices coming from. His assumption was correct.

There was a dark purple unicorn wearing golden armor in front of a group of about 6 other stallions dressed just like him. With wide cyan blue eyes, the stallion stepped forward quickly. "Nightfall! Where's your sister?" His father's voice was nearly muffled by the rain, but it was hearable.

"I'm here daddy!" The small filly popped up from behind Nightfall's mane, smiling brightly.

He smiled and waved to her slightly before looking to Nightfall, his tone now utterly rough; he was showing his 'military side'. "Where do you think you're going?"

Nightfall was now hesitant to speak of his plan. His father never agreed to his thoughts or even took pride in having a son like him anyway. "Well, I was thinking…" He paused, trying to find an easy way to tell his father of his quest he wanted to make.

Having no patience, his father made small circles in the air with one of his hooves and gestured him to speed up. "Well? We haven't all day Nightfall; there are still mares and foals out there needing our help." He then gestured to the stallions behind him with his hoof.

"I was thinking about taking Dawn with me to go to Equestria to ask Princess Celestia for help…"

"_What_?!"

"…I was thinking -"

Nightfall's father cut him off, "No, I heard what you said. I just want to ask you, what makes you think the princess will want to accept to help a country who can't even send a worthy messenger to ask for help?!"

"I -"

"It's your fault Blackheart escaped! For 900 years our creed has been keeping him asleep and life has been perfect! But for some reason, instead of casting the spell, you want to go out and gaze at stars!"

Dawn ducked back down behind Nightfall's mane as the colt looked to the mud, the rain still soaking his dark blue coat. It was all true. He was chosen by his father, the leader of the royal guards in Darkadia, to place the spell on Blackheart. It would've been a simple job for any other unicorn in the town, but Nightfall was different. The colt who happened to be the next chosen descendant of the first guards to place the Hibernation Spell on Blackheart couldn't do exactly what was needed of him, though. His attention was caught by a new constellation in the night sky just minutes before Blackheart's spell ceremony.

"But if you think you can handle travelling over 400 miles of nonstop hard work and no stars to gaze at, go ahead and give it a try!" With that, his father put up a hoofsign and yelled to his men, "Let's move, boys." The group of guards marched through the mud and searched every house around the area.

Being left alone with his sister, Nightfall sighed and shook his head, fighting back the tears in his eyes. Dawn wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and placed her mouth next to his ear, whispering gently, "What's wrong?"

Sniffling, the dark purple-coated colt stood up straight and turned his head to looked back to his sister, shaking his head slightly then. "Nothing. I just need to make this right. If Princess Celestia got my messages, she'll know to put Equestria's capitol on guard. I'm going to fix this."

Saying nothing, Dawn simply hugged tightly on Nightfall, sniffling a few times herself. The colt flipped his mane from in front of his eyes and began trotting towards one of the only houses that stood above all of the others; The Safety Shelter. He knew that he was going to find the first aid, clothing, and food to make the trip to Equestria there, so that was obviously going to be the first place he would go.

As the rain washed away the blood that seeped along the side of Nightfall's face, the colt narrowed his eyebrows and whispered to himself, "I'm ready…"


	3. A Beginning Nightmare

**Nightfall's quest is beginning, but so is Blackheart's reign… Will Twilight be able to stop Blackheart now that he's on his way to Canterlot? Will Nightfall be able to get to Equestria and redeem his name to his home town? Will – Okay, I'll stop. xD Welcome to my third chapter and all. As you all can guess; I've been working really hard on this chapter. Why? It's where the action begins. I mean, with Sir Blackheart coming to Canterlot and all, there's bound to be some action, right? Well, that's for me to know and for you to find out. Enjoy! **

"Let's… Never do that again." Rarity spoke queasily as she stumbled on the concrete of Canterlot's town square. With a green face, she let herself fall onto Applejack, who whole-heartedly caught her.

Discord chuckled as she found the small white unicorn's reaction to his teleportation trick amusing. "What's wrong Rarity," he asked 'obliviously'. A large grin stretched across his face, showing off his gigantic shiny fang.

She groaned in return, trying her best not to vomit all over the place, but most importantly herself. It'd be simply horrible if she got that disgusting muck on her, especially her perfectly-combed purple hair. Rarity shut her blue eyes tightly and shivered at the thought.

Applejack hauled Rarity onto her back and sent Discord a grim glare, "That ain't funny Discord." The orange earth pony's tone was filled with utter seriousness as she pushed her large cowboy hat from in front of her green eyes with her hoof.

Discord blinked and held his claw/paw up in defense, eyes growing wide now, "Well I'm sorry for thinking of something as amusing, Applejack."

A blur of color zipped across the sky in the ROYGBV formation, stopping in front of the draconequus to reveal itself as the famous pegasus Rainbow Dash. She pointed her light blue hoof at his face and yelled ferociously, "You heard her; that _wasn't_ funny!" She turned to Fluttershy and began yelling at the smaller yellow pegasus, "See?! I told you he faked being reformed!"

Fluttershy shook her head and gently flew over to Discord, placing her hoof on one of his shoulder. With a small smile, she began speaking, her soft voice seeming extra kind while speaking about the draconequus. "No, he didn't know that Rarity would have been like that after teleporting us; it was a mistake. Give him a break."

Rarity slowly slumped off of Applejack's back and stood tiredly, looking to Discord angrily.

Discord grinned hard and embraced her in a tight hug, "Oh Fluttershy you're the best!" He closed his eyes and giggled childishly. Fluttershy hugged back gratefully as the others stared at the scene and groaned in frustration.

Even Pinkie Pie, who loved everything, had a certain dislike for Discord. Not because of his chaos, no, but because he wouldn't bring back those awesome chocolate rain-shooting cotton candy clouds.

The draconequus had let go of Fluttershy and leaned back in the air, placing his arms behind his head. Looking at the five ponies, he said nothing. An awkward silence filled the square, leaving the five wondering what they were doing in Canterlot and why in Equestria was the city so empty.

Pinkie Pie stepped forward, asking the question she knew was necessary to ask. "Can you make a cotton candy cloud that makes chocolate rain just for me?"

The others stared at her in awe and yelled the pink earth pony's name in unison, "Pinkie!"

Discord laughed and nodded. "Why, of course Pinkie Pie! Anything for a _friend_." He put emphasis on the last word as he shared an equally long glance with each of the ponies. As he raised his paw to create a cloud, a familiar voice ended his trick.

"Ah, girls! You've arrived!" Celestia exclaimed as she trotted happily to them. The five of them instantly bowed at the sight of the Equestrian princess. When they raised their heads, the princess took note on one distinct part of their appearances. "And I see you've successfully gathered the Elements of Harmony."

"Why wouldn't we?" Discord twirled Twilight's crown on one of his talons, letting his paw drop to his side as he bragged to Celestia.

Using her magic, Celestia took the crown from his claw and placed a quick spell on it, causing it to suddenly disappear. Discord let the crown disappear and sent Celestia a '_really?'_ look. Rainbow Dash gasped as she watched the accessory vanish with wide eyes, "Princess?! What'd you do that for?!"

Giggling gently, Celestia calmed the pegasus. "Don't worry Rainbow Dash, I just placed it within the castle. It's obvious it was already in the wrong hands…" She sent Discord a dull expression only to receive a small 'giggle' from him.

"Not tryin' 'ta be rude; but what are we doin' here, Princess?" Applejack questioned as she removed her hat from her blonde mane. She always loved to help the princess, but wasting time with greetings wasn't like her. Of course helping Equestria would always be a top priority, but an orchard full of apples to pick wasn't anything to shrug off, either.

The princess turned to Applejack as her facial expression became somber. "I've bad news." A few silent gasps came from the smaller ponies as she paused to let them realize what the situation was. Beside her, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor arrived, greeting the others soundlessly with waving hooves. "There's an evil from long ago; it's returned."

_Thump. Thump. Thump. _Twilight's heart was pounding in her chest as she slowly opened her eyes. As she wearily glanced around her, she could hear something – something that said she was in danger. The sound of fire crackling popped in her ears as she came to consciousness, causing her heart to beat harder in fear. She opened her mouth to breathe but as she inhaled, a cloud of smoke invaded her lungs, causing her to close her eyes tight and cough violently. Subconsciously, she could hear herself speaking, "I'm in trouble; I've got to move," but her body wouldn't respond. She just laid there in pain.

The fire was beginning to grow large and the smoke was growing thicker; she had to move fast. Twilight opened her eyes wide as she sat up, muffling her moan of intense pain. Squinting, she looked through the cloud of black soot and saw the carriage, where only three forms could be made out from where she was. Beginning to feel the heat of the fire lick at her back, Twilight forced herself onto her hooves, ignoring the slight stinging pain that shot down her left hind leg.

She began limping towards the carriage, letting out short, painful grunts each time her injured leg touched the ground. "C'mon Twilight, you can do this…" The princess motivated herself as she emerged through the smoke triumphantly; finding Spike, Luna, and one of the royal guards all laying unconscious around the golden carriage. With no hesitation, she hauled the baby dragon onto her back and used her magic to place the others inside the still-intact carriage. Twilight used her magic once more and picked up the carriage, limping away from the burning forest and towards what seemed like a cave a small distance away. Like the hero Celestia proclaimed her to be, she shoved aside the strain her magic put on her and kept going.

As the sky exploded and rumbled above her, Twilight pushed forward underneath the oncoming storm; she had to save her friends. Minutes had passed and it wasn't long until the rain came into play. Soaking wet and tired, the young princess soon made it to the cave she was aiming to rest in for the night. Gently placing the carriage on the cold rock ground, Twilight collapsed onto her right side, catching Spike before he fell as well with her magic. She placed him in the carriage with Luna and the guard silently, looking out into the storm then. Her chest moved quickly as she panted from her heroic action. She knew they were far from Darkadia and Canterlot, but something about that forest seemed familiar. Something… Evil. A spark exploded in Twilight's mind as she figured out where she was; the Everfree Forest.

Laying there, she could hear a pained groan come from behind her, causing her to shoot up onto her hooves and turn around. Luna had awaked, and it was one of the worst awakenings she'd ever had. The princess opened her eyes at the slightest and gritted her teeth as she attempted to move her left foreleg, which was bruised and battered from the crash.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight exclaimed as she rushed over to the older alicorn in the carriage. Ignoring her wound, she hopped onto the edge of the gold and stared at the pained Luna with caring eyes.

Luna turned her head slightly and looked at Twilight. With no hesitation, she began speaking, her voice weak, "Twilight… M-My foreleg… It's…" They both knew that it was broken, but neither of them said so.

Breaking the silence between them, Twilight nodded quickly and spoke, "I know. Don't worry, I'll find a way to make it better." She stared into space and began thinking about what could fix the problem.

"How-"

"The forest!" Luna simply stared to her with a confused expression, now coming to her full consciousness. Twilight let off a smile and continued, "The Everfree forest a bit south from here! I'm positive there are some plants I can use to help your wound heal faster." Before she became a princess, she decided to stick around the enchantress Zecora, who taught her multiple mixtures of plants that would fix _anything_.

Luna gave her a weak smile and slowly nodded her head, "That's excellent, Twilight, but please wait until the rain stops." It was obvious she wanted Twilight to be safe, for she felt like the young princess's older sibling in ways.

But, her sentence was useless as it was unheard; Twilight was already on her way out of the cave, galloping at her fastest speed with her injured leg. Being left with the two unconscious males, Luna sighed and watched the lavender alicorn rush through the blinding rain, "Good luck, Twilight…"

** … Upon nightfall…**

She'd been searching for hours, but nothing came to sight. All that was there were spiders, birds, and trees. Lots and lots of trees. Twilight groaned in frustration and she dropped onto her knees, slamming her hooves into the damp soil, "Why is there nothing here?!" Her voice echoed through the night, proving to Equestria her anger.

Then standing on all fours, she glanced around herself and realized the real problem she was in; she was lost. In the darkness, the lavender alicorn squinted, seeing nothing but indefinite forms and dark shadows. She let her eyebrows drop and blandly spoke to herself, "Great… _Just_ great." The princess looked upward, seeing the constellations she knew so very well in the pitch black night sky. Though she knew all of their names and what they meant, they would help her none in finding her way back to the cave. Still, though, the stars _were _pretty bright out that night…

She shook her head violently and stared ahead, seeing nothing but darkness once more; she had no time to be staring at stars! "Okay, maybe if I use my magic to pick out the ingredients for me…" Twilight began thinking her usual way – logically – about how to find the mixture for Luna's broken foreleg. She began pacing forward and back in the dark, thinking furiously until she heard a bush shake a bit.

Looking up to the rustling bush, the alicorn asked, oblivious to what she was dealing with, "Who's there?" The bushes shook some more, causing her to stand in a defensive stance and aim her horn towards the immediate area. "I asked, who's there?!" She raised her tone to sound intimidating; she could at least _try_ to stop her attacker.

Suddenly, a small blur of white leaped into the air, letting out a gentle yelp as it did so. Twilight scrambled slightly as she prepared her magic attack, but stopped when she realized that the 'flying' form was a young filly. Confused, the princess caught the young one with her magic and gently placed her on the ground. "Umm…"

Completely filled with fear, the white-coated filly jumped around and shouted to her, "Th-There's a big kitty! It's b-bad and mean and trying to eat me!" With tear-filled, purple eyes, the filly sobbed as she rushed to Twilight's leg and hugged it tightly. "Help me… Pwease?" She then looked up to the princess and let pouted hard, her eyes growing the size of basketballs. Cuteness couldn't even define the look Twilight was experiencing.

Twilight blinked and place one of her forelegs around the smaller unicorn who happened to remind her of Sweetie Belle. She calmly spoke back, now catching up to what she was talking about, "What big ca–"

A giant manticore launched from the darkness, its fangs bared and its claws ready for the kill. Its earsplitting roar echoed through the forest as it prepared to devour the defenseless ponies. Twilight stared up to it with wide eyes, gasping loudly with fear. The little filly closed her eyes tightly and screamed as she turned her head away from the beast.

Nightfall raised his head as he heard the blood-curdling scream, and he knew it could only be one person. "Dawn!" He'd lost her a few minutes ago in the darkness because she decided to be the knucklehead she always was when it came to adventures. "No!" Fear jolted through his body as he thought of the soon-to-be reality of losing his sister. He tightened his large saddlebag and burst into a full gallop into the forest.

Fear didn't exist, fatigue didn't exist – _nothing_ existed to the colt except for his sister as he looped past the trees and bushes in the forest's darkness. Another scream rang into the air, but this time it was from someone older. Caring none of the second scream, Nightfall yelled into the night once more for his sister, "Dawn, I'm on my way!"

The dark purple-coated colt burst through the last layerof brush before he skidded to a stop, seeing one of the most incredible sights he'd ever seen. There was a manticore lying in the mud unconsciously, stars swirling over its head and a small purple alicorn standing above it, panting loudly in exhaustion. Dawn was trembling in fear behind the alicorn, her eyes closed tightly.

Nightfall blinked a few times to make sure what he was seeing was real. First of all; an Alicorn in the Everfree forest? That was unusual. Second; she had the power to bring down a fully-grown manticore? That was amazing. Stepping forward, the colt spoke gently, looking to his sister who hid behind Twilight's legs. "Dawn, come here."

The white filly whimpered and shook her head, wrapping her forelegs tightly around Twilight's hind legs.

He sheepishly smiled to Twilight and then went back to his sister, "Come here… _Now_." He put some force in his voice, showing to his sister that he wasn't playing around anymore.

Grumbling a few words, Dawn let go of Twilight and stomped over to her brother, splashing mud everywhere. "I never get to have any fun…"

"Fun?!" That was Nightfall's breaking point. "You call _that _fun?!" He pointed his hoof at the limp manticore, his voice about as loud as the beast's roar. "You could have been hurt! Or even ki-"

Twilight cleared her throat and cut the colt off. The siblings both turned and looked to her, blinking a few times in humiliation. Dawn said nothing and just stared, innocent eyes twinkling in the moonlight. Nightfall spoke in embarrassment, "I'm terribly sorry! I just… I don't want her to be hurt, y'know? She's all I've got."

"It's okay, I understand," she giggled and excused his brotherly behavior. It almost reminded the scolding she got from Shining Armor for running away from Canterlot to find a monster that was in one of her books. Oh, the crazy things a friendless filly would do alone.

The colt looked down to his sister and spoke sternly, "We'll finish this talk later." Dawn nodded and looked away, regretting what she had done. Acting as if nothing happened, he looked up to Twilight and asked, "So who are you?"

"My name's Twilight Sparkle, princess of… Well, I'm just a princess, really." She sheepishly giggled as she introduced herself to the rather handsome colt. Now that she started to pay attention, he did have a few parts on his body that could take a double-take.

With no hesitation, Nightfall dropped onto his knees and bowed to her, lowering his head. "I'm sorry; I hadn't known you were royalty, your highness."

Her eyes went wide as she watched the colt as well as the filly bow before her. "Umm." She didn't want to be bowed to; it was just wrong to her. "You really don't have to do that."

"But of course, you're a princess!" Nightfall said as he rose to his hooves again, Dawn following right after him. "_A beautiful one at that,_" he thought to himself, his dark blue eyes quickly scanning over her body. His eyes sparkled as he smiled slightly, trying to seem friendly as well as a worthy subject to the lavender alicorn.

"I know, but I'm… I've only been a princess for only a day." Twilight drew imaginary circles in the ground with her hoof. Dawn stood quietly behind her brother, biting down on her bottom lip tightly; she just wanted to scream! She just fulfilled her dream! She met a princess!

Nightfall shrugged, stepping towards her, changing his tone from friendly to serious, "Alright… Twilight," the royal name felt foreign as it rolled off of his tongue. "I'm Nightfall, heir of the First Royal Guard."

"First Royal Guard? Like, from Darkadia?" Twilight looked to him with confusion, tilting her head to the left slightly.

"Yes, my sister and I are supposed to be going to Canterlot to meet Princess Celestia so she can send someone to help rebuild Darkadia."

"Rebuild? Don't you mean 'defeat Sir Blackheart'?" Something was a bit off here…

"That's impossible; Blackheart took his toll on our town and left to do whatever he does in his free time."

Twilight took another step toward him, a feeling of insecurity filling up her stomach, "W-Wait… How did he destroy the town?"

Nightfall replied instantly, his memory letting him relive the moment when it first happened, "He attacked us with a storm of chaos. The winds lifted ponies off of the street and the rain shattered windows. He even shot lightning bolts at us!"

That was exactly what she needed to know what was going on. Twilight figured out that Blackheart was going for Equestria to finish what Discord couldn't. He was going to take over the world. The alicorn gasped, "He's on his way to Canterlot!"

"How do you know?"

"W-We passed him… My friends and I were in a carriage flying to Darkadia and there was a sudden storm that shot us out of the sky with a lightning bolt. It _had_ to be him." She looked at Nightfall's saddlebag and asked suddenly, "Do you have medical supplies in there?"

The colt looked down at his bag that hung off of his side and then back up to her, "Yeah, why?"

"My friend is hurt and we need to get back to Canterlot fast."

"Where are they?"

"A cave alongside the forest; it shouldn't take long to get there, though."

Nightfall nodded and picked up Dawn with his mouth, placing her on his back. "Alright, let's go help your friend and save Canterlot!"

"Follow me!" Twilight enthusiastically yelled as she turned around and galloped through the brush. Truth was: she had no idea where she was going.

**I want to apologize for not stating that Nightfall was a unicorn earlier as well as Dawn. That was my mistake. Forgive me! ;~; Anywho, yeah. This is getting tense, right?! :D Well, tune in for the next chapter. Thanks for checking this out and review! – ****_The _****FrozenAgent.**


	4. The Quest for Chaos

**ZOMG! I'm sooooo sorry for the last chapter being so sloppy! I was rushing to get it online and I was just so pressured at the moment that I couldn't do exactly what was needed. Punish me if you'd like. :c **

** Anywho, yeah, the last chapter wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, but I hoped you guys liked it anyway. For those who're sticking with me so far, allow me to accommodate you. You guys are amazing. I've reached over 150 views (Which is good, I think…) thanks to you guys. This is the beginning of a legacy and hopefully with the help of my fellow fans, I'll be famous. I love you guys. **

** Well, the chapter shall begin! Enjoy and review! Being without reviews is lonely, y'know…**

* * *

"Princess Luna?" Twilight's voice echoed back to her as she peeked into a cave she managed to find alongside the Everfree forest. Receiving no answer, the purple alicorn groaned and turned around; this was the first cave she could find with her friends within the past two hours and 'luckily' for them, no one was there. Looking to Nightfall, she shrugged apologetically. "Sorry, I thought that this wa-"

"Twilight? Is that you?" Spike's voice had ricocheted back to her from inside the dark cave, causing her ears to twitch slightly.

Instantly, she twisted in a circle and rushed into the cave, utterly glad to hear the baby dragon's voice. "Spike!" A smiled trailed across her face as she galloped towards her friend she couldn't even see.

Oblivious as of what to do, the colt simply stood outside in the darkness, looking at the border of the forest periodically. There was no doubt that something was watching him and his sister who slept on his back; he just hoped that it wasn't something that felt hungry at the time's being. Listening to the noise of nature's critters making their nightly sounds, he looked up to the night sky and gazed at the stars that sparkled oh so brightly in the air.

Suddenly, he felt a hoof grab onto his dark purple mane and drag him into the cave. With a yell, he wrapped his tail around his sister and slid across the ground into the darkness.

Nightfall covered his eyes with his hoof as he was brought into a sudden light that floated among the rest of the ponies (and dragon) who were in the cave. It was obvious that magic had made the cave seem darker than it actually was outside. He let his hoof drop onto the ground as he looked to his 'attacker', which happened to be a smiling Twilight.

She trotted past the guard who did nothing but stare out into the night outside of the cave blankly. "Come on, Nightfall!"

Following the purple alicorn, he replied, "Coming."

When they made it a bit deeper in the cave, there was a small dragon standing beside a mare lying in a golden carriage. Twilight looked back to the colt and introduced her assistant, "This is Spike," she pointed a hoof at the baby dragon, who waved to him innocently. "He's my assistant from Canterlot."

Nightfall raised a hoof toward Spike and stayed silent; he had no time to be greeting strangers. He needed to get to Canterlot, defeat Blackheart, redeem his name, and live his life in peace, in that order.

Twilight spoke once more, now changing the entire subject from introductory to completely business. "This is Princess Luna; the mare I need you to help. Her foreleg's…" Twilight paused and whispered to him, not wanting Luna to feel any worse. "Broken."

Luna gave a weak smile to the colt and spoke through gritted teeth; a broken foreleg was nothing you could relax with. "Greetings, young colt."

He bowed instantly, and unlike Twilight, the moon princess accepted it as a sign of respect. After bowing to her, a soft snore could be heard from his back. He blinked and looked to Dawn, who slept innocently on his back. "Um, before we begin; do you know where I can set my sister?" He turned to his side to show the princess the sleeping filly on him, sheepishly grinning, "She's not the lightest of fillies." As if on cue, Dawn let out another soft, cute little snore that just melted Luna's heart.

Instantly, the princess gestured to the small position beside her on the carriage with her head, "You can put her right here." With a nod, Nightfall used his magic and gently lifted his sister, a dark purple magic aura engulfing the filly. After carefully placing Dawn by Princess Luna, the colt had then reached into his saddle bag and pulled out a roll of bandages.

Luna had smiled brightly as she looked to the filly beside her; she almost reminded her of Celestia when they were younger. Looking up to Nightfall, she eyed the bandages nervously; she'd never actually been injured before. Well, excluding the time when she and Tia's 'royal' cat scratched her, but it wasn't _that _bad.

"Don't worry, your majesty, I know what I'm doing." The colt spoke proudly of himself as he unwrapped the bandages with his hooves. Twilight stepped back some, watching him do his work. Nightfall continued, "Can I get a look at what's wrong?"

The moon princess raised her injured foreleg, groaning in pain as she did so. With narrowed eyes, the colt stared at the mare's swollen body part. He stepped forward, dropping a small piece of the bandage on her foreleg as he spoke to her calmly, "It's not that bad; it's just bruised, actually. But still, you might want to be careful walking." Looking Luna in the eyes, he then said, "This will hurt, but it will be for the better - I promise."

"I'm ready…" She gulped and closed her eyes, bracing herself for the pain she imagined to come. Nightfall went ahead and quickly took hold of her foreleg with his hoof, and as predicted, Luna screamed out in pain.

The colt whispered and went to work, "I'm sorry your majesty…"

Twilight watched, her heart sinking at the sight of the princess in pain, but she knew in the end, everything was going to be fine; especially after they stopped Sir Blackheart. She could feel Spike grabbing onto one of her hind legs, burying his face in it.

** …15 minutes later…**

Twilight stared at the night sky in silence as she heard Nightfall step beside her, sighing slightly. She looked to him with her purple eyes and asked, "What's wrong?"

He looked back to her and shook his head, seeming obviously tired. "Nothing, I just… I'm not used to seeing royalty like that. I'm not used to seeing royalty at all." Turning his head to stare up at the skies, he asked, "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Oh, just… Gazing." She grinned slightly as she looked up at the sparkling stars. "The stars beautiful tonight, aren't they?"

Nightfall looked at the beautiful alicorn under the moonlight. Sure, he just met her, but she was just amazing to him; she was kind, royal, and beautiful! Subconsciously speaking, he nodded, his eyes drooping as his heart thumped hard in his chest, "Yeah… They are."

"Which constellation is your favorite?" She turned and looked at him to find him staring at her. Twilight's cheeks grew red as looked to the ground; she'd never been 'checked out' before.

Shaking his head quickly, the colt looked back up to the stars and blushed as well. "I don't have one, really…"

The alicorn shrugged slightly, beginning to feel a bit shy towards him. "Oh, well, that's okay. I happen to like all of them, too." She changed her glare from the ground to the colt's purple gaze as he looked to her. They both awkwardly shifted as they stared at each other intently, not being able to look away.

Inside the cave, Luna looked out of the cave at the two and grinned softly. With the bit of magic she could use, she took the brightest stars out that night and formed them into the shape of a heart.

Being distracted by the sudden light in the sky, the two had looked up, finding the shining heart in the sky. Nightfall chuckled nervously and shrugged as he looked back down to the princess. Twilight did exactly the same.

Placing her good hoof on her face, Luna sighed in frustration from inside the cave. "Young ponies…"

* * *

Princess Celestia stared into the night sky from her castle, worry trailing across her face. She looked back as she felt a paw gently lay on her back. "What do you want?"

"Well, I just want to know how the _lovely _princess is doing." Discord put a certain amount of emphasis in the word 'lovely' that showed his sarcasm. But deep inside, he actually meant it. Flapping his wings, he floated closer to her, "Is there a problem with that?" Discord had a large, playful grin on his face as he stared into Celestia's magenta eyes.

She sighed and shook her head as she stared back outside of her window, seeing the large black cloud practically engulfing the force field that surrounded Canterlot. "Discord, now isn't the time… I'm sure you see the storm outside is no normal storm. It's Blackheart."

Now floating above her, he looked out of the window and yawned. "Well, that's obvious." Celestia sighed once more in frustration, rolling her eyes at the draconequus. Discord continued, "But what are you worrying about? You have _me_ on your side!" He smiled and placed his claw on his chest, admiring himself greatly in her presence. Then, he caught himself, "Wait… You're not worried, are you?" That made no sense; the princess who had been keeping harmony across Equestria for millennia – worried?

The princess stayed silent as she turned around and began walking to the doorway. Discord followed her with a confused expression, "Tia?" She still said nothing as she opened the door with her magic, her hooves tapping on the marble floor as she stepped through the doorway. "C'mon, you could at lea-"

She turned around and rushed into the draconequus, burying her face in his red fur. With wide eyes, Discord looked down to her and prepared to say something witty, but he said nothing. The dozen guards that stood there simply watched, just as surprised as Discord to see what was going on. The draconequus could hear her whisper something into his chest. "I missed you."

His heart skipped a beat as he actually paid attention to these words; she actually meant them! Gently placing his paw on her mane, he dropped onto the ground gently and embraced her with a hug. He closed his eyes and searched deep inside of himself. He was beginning to feel that feeling he'd been missing for millennia. "I missed you too, Tia." He whispered back to her.

The guards did nothing as they watched the phenomena. Not because they were afraid that Discord could make them disintegrate within milliseconds, but because they knew that something like this needed not to be interrupted. Everyone deserves love – even spirits of chaos.

Suddenly, the floor shook and an earsplitting explosion rang throughout the city. Celestia instantly pulled away from Discord and looked to the guards around them, "What was that?!"

The guards said nothing and rushed downstairs, where they would be able to fight off whatever decided to attack. As they loudly rushed to the town square, Celestia watched them leave. She then looked up to the draconequus. Her voice was stern, but it was a little more kind than how she used to speak to him, "I'm going to get Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. Gather the others and meet me at the town square."

Discord saluted playfully and snapped his fingers, disappearing with a flash. After watching him leave, the princess galloped to the balcony of her room and looked to the sky. With a gasp, her heart skipped a beat as she witnessed the bright green force field she had built earlier shatter into pieces. "No!"

Tons of pitch black clouds filled the skies of Canterlot as the force field fell. A deep, evil voice echoed from the clouds. "Ah! Such a beautiful town! It'd be a shame if it was," the voice paused as a black-coated alicorn entered Celestia's sight from one of the clouds. He suddenly aimed one of his hooves at a building and a bolt of lightning struck it, setting it in flames instantly. "Destroyed!"

Celestia jumped from the balcony and stretched her wings, gliding to the ground below her castle. Her hooves loudly clicked against the concrete as she looked up to Blackheart. He blew up a few more buildings before actually taking notice of the princess standing in the moonlight. "Hm? What's this? A little princess trying to protect her subjects?" The evil alicorn struck a tree beside her with a lightning bolt, setting it aflame. Now being able to see her better, his dark red eyes went wide. "Oh! Princess Celestia!"

"Blackheart! Stop this!" She yelled to him as multiple guards came beside her to aid her.

Discord suddenly appeared to Celestia's right, leaning against her slightly, "That's not gonna work, Tia. He _is _a bad guy after all."

Now looking to the draconequus, she mumbled lowly with anger, "Discord…"

"Sorry."

The black alicorn sent his clouds across the town to destroy other buildings as he dropped towards the ground, his wings allowing him to land safely on the concrete. With a large smirk, he stood across from his opposing enemies, stomping a hoof on the ground as a round of applause. "Hooray! The amazing Princess Celestia has confronted an enemy from millennia ago! She's going to save Equestria once more!"

"I will save Equestria." She replied to him and stepped forward, her horn glowing slightly as she prepared to begin the battle.

"Not on my watch." Blackheart's black horn became engulfed by a red aura as he stepped forward as well.

Before they actually fought, Discord cut them off, stepping in front of Celestia by doing so. "Wait!"

"Discord?" Blackheart tilted his head in confusion; he hadn't expected his teacher to actually be working with those pitiful ponies.

Sliding on a pair of shades, Discord took a few more steps towards Blackheart. "Yup. I'm different, Blackheart. I ain't about that life anymore."

In the background, Pinkie Pie's insane laughter could be heard by all. "He said '_ain't_'!"

"What?! You're working with _these _pitiful… Things?! Whatever happened to chaos?!" The alicorn was furious! There was no way that the person who taught him to be ruthless and chaotic suddenly became a kind, loving… Cushion!

"I don't know, but I'm not letting you destroy Canterlot. Or hurt my friends." Discord got serious then, tossing the shades to the side. They exploded when they hit the ground beside him, only making him seem a bit more intimidating.

Celestia watched the draconequus step forward, his claw/paw balling into fists. She'd never seen him so protective about anything. He was truly reformed.

Blackheart chuckled slightly as he shook his head, "You're making a big mistake, Discord." His pendant began glowing red then; its power was being consumed by the evil alicorn.

"You're the one making the mistake, pal! Discord's going to beat your-" Rainbow Dash's cheer for the draconequus was cut off by Applejack's hoof covering her mouth.

Ignoring the light blue pegasus, Blackheart aimed his horn at Discord, still shaking his head in disbelief. "You're in for it now…"

Out of the blue, Discord shot a blast of magic from his paw towards the alicorn, yelling a victorious cry as he did so; there was no pony in Equestria who could survive a direct magic attack from him. "POW! Right in the kisser!" Smoke filled the town square, adding effect to Blackheart's defeat. The draconequus turned around, bragging to the ponies before him, mostly Celestia, though. "I'm the best and you know-"

His sentence was cut off by the sound of deep chuckling – Blackheart's chuckling to be exact. With wide eyes, the draconequus twisted and looked into the smoke with a confused expression. There was no way anypony could've survived that! With his magic, Discord pushed the smoke and debris aside, revealing a dark black alicorn surrounded by a red aura. "How?..."

Speechless, he just watched Blackheart step from the smoke and triumphantly laugh at Discord's futile attempt to defeat him. "You see Discord; I've been given some special abilities while I've been away…" The alicorn took another step forward, causing everypony else to retreat from him. The spirit of chaos was the only one who stood still and tall.

"And what might that be?" He asked his pupil as he prepared to attack him once more.

Blackheart said nothing and stomped on the ground, his hoof shaking the ground violently. Cracks spread through the concrete, allowing a dim flash of red light seep through them. Celestia closed her eyes and engulfed her surrounding subjects with a force field, "Everypony stay close!"

Discord leaped into the air and began flapping his wings. While in midair, he growled, "Stop this!"

The alicorn's answer was simple, "No!" He aimed his horn at the draconequus and fired a beam of dark magic. Not being able to block the attack, Discord was hit in the chest with this magic, being sent hurdling backwards in pain. "See, Discord?! I'm unstoppable!" Blackheart burst into evil laughter as he stepped across the shaking ground. Changing his gaze to Celestia then, he gave a wicked smile, "So, Princess… How have things been going?"

Celestia looked at him with a disgusted face; she hated evil things, especially ponies. "What happened to you? Do you not remember the colt you were before Discord came along?"

"That has nothing to do with this!" He interrupted the princess and pointed his hoof at her, a spark of lightning popping from it. "This is no quest for redemption, Celestia; it's a quest for domination! I'm not the only one taking over Equestria, and I'm sure that you can't stop her either!"

The first person she could think of was Chrysalis; had she really come back for revenge or another go at Equestria? "Who are you talking about, Blackheart?!"

"Oh, you'll see her soon enough. But until then, _I'll_ have reign over Equestria!" He began to back away from them slowly, despite the shaking ground. Suddenly, Discord rushed back into the action, his eyes flaring with anger and determination. Blackheart simply shot a beam of magic that was much too familiar to the draconequus. His eyes went wide as he ran into the magic, every single inch of his body suddenly turning into stone. Everypony gasped with fear as they watched him drop onto the ground with a thud, his body stuck in the position he was last seen moving in. A trail of surprise riddled across his stone face as he lay in the dirt, as stagnant as could be.

Celestia began galloping towards the 'frozen' draconequus, tears filling up in her eyes as she watched him drop to the ground. "DISCORD!" Ignoring the evil alicorn ahead, she kept her eyes locked on Discord before she was hit by a blast of Blackheart's evil magic as well. She fell quickly to the ground.

The royal guards rushed forward full force at the black-coated alicorn, their battle cries echoing over the rumbling ground. "Princess!" The other ponies yelled after the downed princess, rushing to her side as the guards went along to fight Blackheart.

Easily blowing the guards away with his magic, Blackheart chuckled evilly and stretched his large black wings. Flapping them once, he launched into the air and roared over the rumbling of his own destruction, "Well, there's one princess down! I wonder who I could attack next…" He questioned 'obliviously' as she looked down to Princess Cadance, whose cutie mark gave him the perfect idea. "Well I wonder how the Crystal Heart's holding up…" He mischievously grinned and looked directly to Cadance, his bright red eyes glowing within the moonlight he controlled now that Celestia was injured and Luna was absent.

She looked up to him with a gasp and tapped Shining Armor with her hoof. The prince looked up to Blackheart as well with a dead serious expression, "You're not going to get the Crystal Heart!"

"Try and stop me!" With his magic, he made the moon fill with a red fluid, engulfing the darkness with a blood red light. He looked to Celestia and smirked, "I'll see _you_ later…" Saying those words, Blackheart turned around and burst into a mad dash towards the Crystal Empire.

With no hesitation, Cadance followed right after him, her pink wings stretching throughout the air. She yelled back to her husband as she did so, "Shining Armor, meet me there!"

Saying nothing, the white unicorn nodded and galloped toward the train station, which was hopefully still intact so he could get back home to save his empire.

As the three left the town square, the remaining Elements of Harmony picked up Princess Celestia and carried her into the castle, where safety was practically guaranteed.

The doors to the castle slammed shut as the young mares gently placed the princess on the marble floor. She groaned in pain as she shut her eyes tight, a dark red spark of electricity travelling down her horn periodically. Her magic was useless.

"Princess, what shall we do?!" Rarity screamed, her tone showing her overdramatic fear of Blackheart taking reign of Equestria.

Celestia looked up to the others with an absolutely dismal expression, "I'm sorry… I should've been able to stop him." Her voice was weak and croaky, showing that the attack she took from Blackheart was more than just a magic-banishing spell.

Applejack stopped her and tossed her hat to the side, looking the princess deep in her eyes. "No, don't do that to yerself! That Blackheart feller ain't the strongest, and we're gonna stop 'im!

"Oh Applejack, you're too kind," the weary princess said as she took the inspiring words from the orange earth pony. She coughed violently, only scaring the others a bit more. "In order to stop Blackheart, we just free Discord; he's the only one who would know his weakness."

"They _are _both beings of chaos and all," Fluttershy said.

"Yeah, but we need the _all _of the Elements of Harmony to do that…" Rainbow Dash added, an expression of anger planted on her face; she hated letting the bad guys get away!

Celestia coughed once more, closing her eyes again as she nodded to the light blue pegasus. "Exactly. We must wait until Twilight and the others to return. I'll send Spike a letter and -" She stopped and realized the flaw in the plan. Her magic didn't work; she couldn't send any letters to Spike.

The others looked to the floor; attempting to think of a way to help her. Then, Rarity stepped forward with determination and heroism trailing across her face. Her eyes sparkled as she looked down to the weakened princess, "I'll use my magic to do it."

Everyone looked to the white unicorn and asked in unison, "What?" Could it be possible that somepony with magic as 'weak' as Rarity's use a spell used only by royalty? Well, there was only one way to find out.

"Are you sure you're up for the task, Rarity?" The princess asked; she knew that the spell was a tricky one; even for royalty. And for someone like Rarity, who barely used half of magic's potential to try it, she knew it would be a challenge.

"Anything for my friends!"

Rainbow Dash yelled out, raising her hooves into the air, "That's the spirit!"

* * *

**Well, thanks guys for –**

Pinkie Pie tossed a large pile of confetti in the air, screaming loudly with enthusiasm. "GO RARITY!"

* * *

**_Well_****, thanks you guys for taking the time out of your very successful lives (I'm sure they are) to read this chapter of my story. But for now, I'd really like to dedicate this chapter to a friend of mine who passed away yesterday. **

** Before things get sad and depressing, I'll just say thank you (again) for visiting this chapter. You guys happen to be the best! Thanks for the support you give me in the ways you do. I love you peeps! :3 You deserve cookies. Do Svidaniya! – FrozenAgent47. **


	5. A Raging Chaos

**Hey guys! :D I've got a surprise for youuuuu! It's this. ._. Uhm, there's nothing really to say before I start this chapter but enjoy and review!**

* * *

"Why did we have to wake up so early?" Spike grumpily asked as he walked beside Twilight, rubbing the rest of the sleep out of his eyes. The sun had risen about an hour ago, but from the west for some reason.

Twilight stared at the smoke that emitted from the distant city Canterlot. "Because Equestria's in danger, Spike!"

Nightfall looked down to Dawn, who was just as tired as Spike. Before she could even complain, the colt cut her off, "Don't even…" The white filly sighed and looked around the ground.

"Princess Luna, are you okay?" The purple alicorn turned around as she asked the question. She smiled when she saw that the moon princess was holding her own.

With her guard beside her, she kept her injured hoof higher than the other ones, her wings keeping her afloat and moving. Luna sent Twilight a nod, "Yes, I'm fine."

Looking forward once more, Twilight began trotting triumphantly; she knew that they were going to win whatever battle they were to encounter. "Perfect! Let's do this, guys!"

Spike abruptly stopped and clutched his stomach, gritting his teeth in sudden pain. "Wait!" He called out to the others as he felt something violently ride up from his stomach and into his mouth. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, letting a ball of green fire burst into the air. As the baby dragon dropped onto the ground, the fire suddenly formed into a small parchment with a golden stamp on it.

Twilight gasped as she watched the letter drop onto the grass, barely caring about Spike's condition; he was always like that. She whispered, "Princess Celestia!" Rushing over to the small paper on the ground, she used her magic and unrolled it, beginning to read it aloud as everypony surrounded her.

"_Dear Twilight, _

_ Oh, I'm still not sure how to write these formal letters and all, but here's my go. It's me, Rarity, the beautiful fashion designer in Ponyville! Anyway, I was just writing to tell you -"_ Twilight stopped reading the letter when she came across a bunch of scribbles across the paper. Then, it was readable again with hoofwriting she was familiar with.

"_Apologies, my dear student; Rarity here isn't the one to write urgent letters. Canterlot has been attacked by Sir Blackheart! He's turned Discord back to stone and rendered my magic useless! I need you to return to Canterlot immediately and reunite with your Ponyville friends to free Discord. You'll then go to the Crystal Empire, where Blackheart is planning to destroy the Crystal Heart; we cannot allow that! You must move swiftly, Twilight Sparkle, for the fate of Equestria lies entirely in your hooves. Hurry!" _

Twilight let the letter drop and looked to Nightfall and began giving orders, "Nightfall, take Dawn and put her on your back; we've got to move quickly. Spike, get on." She looked down to the baby dragon and with no hesitation, he did as told. Changing her glare to Luna and the guard, she spoke, "Fly as fast as you can to Canterlot; we've got a world to save." They both gave a nod and zipped off with a blur of dark purple and white. "Let's go!"

** … After miles of running…**

Twilight collapsed, allowing Spike to do exactly the same onto the cold concrete ground. She opened her purple eyes as she looked up to the smoke-filled skies of her hometown. Fighting the tears that threatened to escape her eyes, she stood up, ignoring the fatigue that she suffered from. Whoever did this was going to pay.

The buildings were either destroyed or burning to smithereens and everything less secure than the buildings were utterly ruined. Fire spread over the ruins of Canterlot, only causing more of the city to fall apart. The ground was split into fractions, the cracks in the concrete spitting fire as well.

After he gently set down his little sister, Nightfall stepped beside Twilight and placed his foreleg around her neck, whispering to her calmly. "It's going to be okay…" Spike seemed to be in the same state Twilight was in as he laid the ground, tears rolling down his cheeks. The memories he had of the town were literally burning to the ground. Dawn stepped beside him and picked him up by his 'hair' with her mouth. Sure, she understood how Spike felt; her town was destroyed by the same person, but she was _not_ going to have something so cute cry!

The filly soon placed him in a patch of grass and stared him in his tear-filled eyes. "Stop."

"What?" He replied, his voice croaky.

She tapped his head with her hoof and yelled at him, "Stop crying dodo!" Spike wiped his eyes and sniffled as he looked into Dawn's large purple eyes. "It's okay, okay?"

"But-"

"No buts! We have to be happy!" The filly smiled brightly and raised her hooves in the air, a rainbow spreading over her. "Even if things are bad!"

With that, Spike grinned some and stood onto his feet, nodding to her. "I-I'll try."

"Good!" Happily, she turned around and victoriously walked over to her brother and Twilight.

Twilight had looked down at the ground and sighed, shaking her head. "I have to fix this…"

"You and I both," said a voice that the princess had missed for a while. Rainbow Dash landed on the ground in front of her, a large smirk on her face. "So stop being sad and let's go kick this Blackheart guys' butt."

Twilight quickly switched her gazed from the cracked ground and to the blue pegasus, her heart skipping a beat. She screamed her name and leaped onto her friend, wrapping her forelegs around her, "Rainbow Dash!"

Blushing, she simply tapped her back a few times with her hoof and looked around embarrassingly; that girly stuff wasn't for her. Especially in front of people. "Yeah… I missed you too."

Backing away from Rainbow Dash, the princess asked, a smiled planted on her face. "Where's the others?"

"Back at the castle," she paused and pointed to Celestia's castle, which was the only building practically unscathed. "Princess Celestia is hurt and Discord's stone again!"

Paying attention to the information she didn't know, Twilight asked with concern, her eyes going wide, "Princess Celestia's hurt?!"

"Yeah! C'mon!" The pegasus launched into the air and towards the castle in a blur of her usual six colors.

Twilight looked back to the others and quickly spoke, "Guys, I'll see you there. Be careful." Before anyone could respond, she took off behind Rainbow.

* * *

"Twilight," Celestia said weakly, her eyes half-open as she looked to the door that she small alicorn came through. "You must free Discord and go to the Crystal Empire as soon as possible."

The purple alicorn nodded as she stepped through the small crowd that surrounded the sun princess, "I will. But will you be okay?" She said nothing to Fluttershy, who placed her crown on her head silently while she talked to Celestia.

"I'll be fine." She let out a violent cough before continuing her sentence. "Use the elements of harmony and free him. Take Luna with you to the Crystal Empire and -" Her sentence was cut off by the sound of the doors opening once more. There was Spike and two unknown ponies entering the castle.

Instantly, Pinkie Pie zipped over to them, wearing a ninja suit with a plastic sword in her hoof, "Hold!"

Dawn squeaked in fear and hid behind her brother as Nightfall just stared at her with an emotionless face. "Really? A plastic sword?"

Before Pinkie Pie could reply to the colt, Spike stepped forward, holding up a hand towards the pink earth pony, "Hold on Pinkie! These two are on our side!"

"Who are they?" Celestia asked weakly, not being able to see past the legs of the ponies above her.

As the others moved aside, Nightfall looked to the lying princess and bowed. Dawn did exactly the same. The colt spoke with a humble tone, "I am Nightfall of Darkadia, your highness." He raised his head and pointed a hoof at his sister, "And this is my sister, Dawn."

The princess nodded as she recalled the name she just heard. "You're the colt that sent me the letter."

"Yes I am your majesty."

"Alright then," She coughed before she could finish her sentence. Continuing on with an even weaker tone than before, Celestia shifted slightly on the floor, "I want you to leave your sister with Spike and I. Go with Twilight and the others and defeat Sir Blackheart."

"I will not fail you, princess." He bowed once more, his determination shining in the princess's eyes. Dawn and Spike stepped past the colt and stopped next to Princess Celestia.

"I know you won't, young colt…" Celestia then looked up to the Elements of Harmony and Luna, "Now go. I wish you luck."

Before they all left, Luna stuck behind and looked to her sister with a caring expression, "Sister, are you sure you don't want me to stay here with you?"

"I'm positive Luna. The others will need your assistance to defeat Blackheart. Good luck…" With that, the others left the princess with the Spike and Dawn.

The wind blew silently in the town as the eight stepped out from the castle and into the cold air of Canterlot. Nopony said a word as they walked through the destroyed town, for Twilight and Luna were on the brink of crying – their hometown was history! Everypony understood though; like when Rainbow Dash had that vision when Cloudsdale was going to fall apart, and when the others had witnessed Ponyville become the Chaos Capital. Not to mention that Nightfall witnessed the destruction of their home.

It took a while for them to make it to the town square, but when they did, they all laid eyes on the stone draconequus that sat motionless on the ground. Twilight stepped forward, seriousness and determination defining her facial expression as she spoke to the other Elements of Harmony, "C'mon girls, let's do this."

"Right," they all replied in unison. Standing in their usual formation, they looked towards Discord and waited for Twilight to start the 'spark'. The purple alicorn closed her eyes and concentrated her magic to Discord's form. After a moment of silence, the gem on the top of her crown began to shine brightly; the spark had begun.

The others had simply followed along with the procedure, their gems shining as well. Altogether, they were picked up a white aura that their accessories emitted, meaning that their power was beginning to work. A loud ringing sound echoed through the town as the Elements of Harmony combined their magic and sent a blast towards the draconequus.

Behind the six, Luna and Nightfall watched with awe, obviously surprised to see a power so great coming from only six ponies. A flash of light spread across the town square, blinding everypony in the area. The Elements of Harmony dropped onto the ground violently as their magic broke the spell Blackheart had placed on Discord.

**BANG!** An earsplitting explosion roared throughout the town, followed by a dragon's roar. "Aaaaah! That spell – I hate it!" Discord stood as he stretched some and stomped his hoof on the ground in anger.

Twilight stood onto her hooves and shook the dizziness out of her head. With a small smirk on her face, she stepped forward and began filling Discord in on what had happened while he was frozen. "Discord, we've got to go to the Crystal Empire; Blackheart is on his way to destroy the Crystal Heart!"

He looked down to Twilight and gasped dramatically, placing his claw on his chest. "Oh my! I wonder who's going to stop him!"

As the Elements of Harmony regained their bearings, Rainbow Dash could be heard mumbling underneath the soft wind. "I seriously don't like him…"

"We are!" Luna limped forward, staring the draconequus in his eyes with sincerity and grit; she was one of the rulers of Equestria, so she had a responsibility to meet.

Those two words made Discord's heart skip a beat. Him, working to save the world he formerly attempted to control? That didn't add up right. "_We?_"

Twilight then took a calmer approach, stepping towards him slowly. "Yes. Since you and Blackheart are both beings of chaos, we've figured that you're the only person that can help us defeat him."

"Oh." He replied simply. Then beginning to clean his nails, he continued, "Well, fine. But before that takes place; where's Tia?" Not knowing Discord little nickname for the sun princess, the ponies other than Twilight and Luna looked at each other with confused faces. "_Celestia_ is in the castle; she's been injured." Twilight replied to the draconequus's question.

Discord flew into a rage, his face turning a blood red and his pupils dilating in anger. "WHAT?!"

With no hesitation, Fluttershy zipped to his side and pressed her hooves gently on the draconequus's shoulders. "Discord, it's okay! She's going to be fine!"

He was getting ready to burst off to the castle and help Celestia himself, but when he heard the soft, calming voice of his friend, he could feel his heartbeat slow down. As he calmed down, he whispered to the yellow pegasus angrily, still staring forward with fury, "Let's pay Blackheart a visit, shall we?"

Rainbow Dash then flew to his side, leaning against him coolly, "_Now _you're talking…"

Twilight looked to the draconequus and asked sincerely, "Discord, are you going to help us defeat Blackheart?"

"Defeat him? Oh, I'm going to _destroy _him, Twilight." He said as he looked over to her with his killer gaze. Nopony had ever seen him so angry.

"Let's not go _too _far now, we may be able to reform him with the Elements of Harmony. If we -"

"No! He hurt my Tia and I'm going to make him pay." With that, Discord began to flap his wings and took off into the air slowly, pushing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy aside.

"Hey, Discord!" Now, the draconequus stopped, hearing an unfamiliar voice call his name. He turned around and looked down to the colt who spoke upon him. Nightfall stepped forward and ignored the surprised stares he received from the others. "Look, I understand that you like the princess. I understand that you want to make Blackheart pay because he hurt her, but you can't go around trying to destroy him! It's what he does!"

The draconequus landed and looked upon the dark-coated unicorn with a scowl. Nightfall continued, "As Twilight said; we can reform him. I watched him destroy my entire town and I'm holding it in better than you are… And you're supposed to be a spirit." The colt scoffed and stared him in the eyes.

Discord wanted to strike him for speaking him like how he was, but he realized; the colt was right! Sighing, he let his head drop and agreed to Nightfall's statement. "I guess you're right, colt." Looking up to the others, he apologized informally, "Sorry, guys."

Twilight giggled slightly and shook her head, "It's okay, Discord. Now let's get to the Crystal Empire and save Equestria!"

They all cheered and began to make their way to the Empire. While they walked, Rainbow Dash could be heard mumbling, "If I hear 'save Equestria' one more time…"

* * *

**Sorry that this chapter was cut short, I wanted to save the big parts of the story for a little later. Well, uhm, I'm kinda gone now. e.e" See you guys later. I hope there aren't a lot of mistakes in this chapter; I had to rush getting this one online. Thanks guys for reading this and I hope you enjoyed! Review... PLEASE! D: - FrozenAgent47.**


	6. A Broken Heart

**"Everything happens for a reason, even when ninjas come to attack tacos. It's sad, but it's reasonable" – That One Taco Who Used To Be a Ninja. Enjoy and review guys! xD**

* * *

"And that's what friends are for!" Pinkie Pie had finally finished her singing solo as she trotted through the heavy snow beside her friends. With a large smile, she looked through the falling snow and asked her friends, her bright blue eyes sparkling in the miniature blizzard, "You guys wanna go again?" They'd been walking for days, and Pinkie Pie had been singing… For _days._

They all replied with a scream in unison, "NO!"

The pink earth pony pouted and looked forward, staring at the ground as well. "Okay…"

"Oh come on Pinkie Pie, don't be like that! We can always have a good encore!" Discord floated beside her, tossing a pink scarf on her back gently. As he saw Pinkie getting happy again, he looked back to the others with a mischievous smirk.

She squealed in happiness and took in a deep breath to start another round of the song until Rarity cut in, her tone full of urgency. "Everypony, look!" The white unicorn stopped and pointed her hoof towards the distant Crystal Empire nearly hidden by the snowfall.

From what they could see, there was a large wave of darkness emitting from Princess Cadance's castle, pushing the clouds away and turning the sky gray. A few gasps emitted from the group as they watched the phenomena occur far ahead of them. From within the darkness, there was a large, red heart that rose into the air and split into two. It too had turned into gray as it split.

A vicious wave of wind then came rushing at them, blowing all of the snow and clouds away. An earsplitting explosion rang through northern Equestria as the heart exploded; a thick wave of colorlessness spreading across the skies and land. The ponies screamed and covered their ears with their hooves as they dropped low onto the cold grass uncovered by the wind.

Discord was the only one standing, and he of all people, was feeling a little uncertain that the battle was going to be a win. An astonished face was his expression and his body was frozen in… Fear?

It took minutes for the others to recover from the explosion, but when they did, they realized that everything was different. The world around them was dull and gray. Everything looked… Dead! The grass laid flat and the sky above was a bright gray. Something was definitely wrong.

Twilight stepped forward and questioned Discord's unusual personality. "Discord? What's wrong?"

The draconequus said nothing as he looked toward the dreary empire. He just simply shook his head. He remembered this much too well. Back when he was comrades of chaos with King Sombra, he could remember the immediate effects of the destruction of the Crystal Heart. Of course, the crystal ponies of the empire rebuilt it, but when they did, Sombra hid it for 'good'.

"Discord, if you know what's happening; now would be a good time to tell us what," Luna said as she stepped across the grass beside him and looked him in his eyes.

"It's… Gone." That's all he said.

"What's gone?" Nightfall then asked. His heart was beginning to pound in his chest. The first thing that came across this mind was the destruction of the Crystal Heart. He'd once heard of the Crystal Heart and its abilities – and he knew without it, love and affection across Equestria would be gone.

The draconequus turned around and looked to them all, his eyes filled with a sense of hopelessness, "The Crystal Heart is gone!"

Rarity fainted. As Rainbow Dash caught the white unicorn, she asked the Discord, "What?! How in Equestria would you know?!"

"Did you not see that heart breaking in the sky?! It _obviously _meant something!" He yelled back at the blue pegasus with venom in his tone, gesturing towards the gray sky with his paw.

Twilight stayed silent and burst into a full gallop towards the empire. She ignored the calls from her friends and her newly found crush and headed forward to defeat Blackheart and save Equestria.

Nightfall took his saddlebag and dropped it onto the dead grass, rushing after her, "Twilight! Wait up!"

She yelled back, holding back a few tears that crept up in her eyes, "Nightfall, stay away!"

The colt easily caught up to her and cut her off with his form, panting as he spoke to her, his eyes full of seriousness and… Affection? "Why should I?"

"Because if the Crystal Heart is destroyed we'll only slow each other down; love doesn't exist anymore!" Though Twilight had learned much about friendship and love, she knew that the Crystal Heart was more than a simple artifact to the lands of Equestria – without it, those life morals didn't exist.

That nearly made him angry. "What?!" Nightfall ignored the fact that the others had finally caught up to them; he had something to tell her. "Twilight," he said, stepping forward as he gently took hold of one of her hooves with his own. The hopelessness she felt; he understood it, but he wouldn't let a friend of his give up on their friends because of some stupid artifact. "I understand that we've only known each other for a few days, but I really like you. So you can say it's not supposed to be true, but it is. Okay?"

The others let out their little love sounds. Rarity jumped up to consciousness and simply let out a long "Awwww!" along with Fluttershy.

Applejack silently cheered for the two as she took off her hat, "Now ain't that somethin'…"

Rainbow Dash gagged and looked away. As always, that girly stuff wasn't for her. Discord gazed at them emotionlessly and Luna simply watched with a small smile on her face. The only pony that actually 'did something' was Pinkie Pie, who launched a load of confetti over the two, "WOO! GO LOVE!"

Twilight, who was blushing furiously in spite of the moment, ignored the colored paper falling on her and Nightfall. "B-But…"

"No. No buts…" Nightfall let off a gentle smile as he stepped closer to her, his eyes then sparkling with a feeling that really wasn't supposed to exist. Love. "I know you've heard of 'love at first sight', princess."

She broke their eye contact as she looked to the ground and blushed even harder. "You don't have to call me -"

Her sentence was cut off by a feeling she had never felt before. Twilight's heart skipped a beat just like the others around her. With wide eyes, she looked at the colt in front of her, who had his eyes closed as he pressed his lips upon hers. She felt like she was having a heart attack; he was kissing her! He was _kissing her!_ So many feelings rushed through her head until one thing just overwhelmed her. Love.

Twilight closed her eyes and leaned into the kiss, finally accepting the fact that she had feelings for the colt.

Luna squealed as she watched the two kiss, her attempts on bringing them close finally victorious. "Yes!" It's true; royalty played none whatsoever when it came to their subjects' relationships.

A weird feeling tingled in Twilight's stomach as she began to passionately –

"Hey! Love-ponies, we've got a job to do!" Discord yelled at them, bringing them back to the true mission at hand. Though their newly found love gave him a sense of happiness and hope, he knew that their job was nothing to toss aside.

They scrambled apart at the sound of the draconequus' voice, dark blushes covering their faces.

* * *

"Hm?" Blackheart silently questioned as he saw the shards of the Crystal Heart rattle on the cold, gray concrete ground. They sparkled slightly, seeming to have a bit of power stored within them. With no hesitation, he sent a blast of dark magic from his horn towards the small remnants of the Heart and blew them into smaller bits. As debris and smoke flew through the air, he chuckled slightly and shook his head, now looking over to the defeated Princess Cadance, "So, how does it feel to be betrayed by your '_love_', princess?"

The weakened pink alicorn lay on the ground beneath him, her loyal subjects standing around the two with faces of awe and fear. "He… Didn't betray me…" She scowled up at him and spoke with venom in her words. Though she was weak due to her source of power (the Crystal Heart) being destroyed, she still could give off a mean tone if she wanted to.

"Well why isn't he here, then?!" Cadance trembled slightly under the evil alicorn's deep, threatening voice that shook the ground. She said nothing and limply rolled onto her back, staring up into the gray sky; she was literally useless. The Crystal Heart supplied her magical abilities and strength, and without Shining Armor at her side, she couldn't do anything to stop Blackheart from doing whatever. It burned her soul to think this way…

The alicorn stomped on the ground, right beside her head only to cause her to whimper and shift lazily in fear of being hurt by him. Blackheart laughed; his victory was becoming clearer and clearer. He had already taken down two princesses and the Elements of Harmony were split apart. Discord was frozen and his comrade in crime was far from Equestria. It was his time to rule.

"Alright you pathetic scum, I want all of you to go and find me some..." Looking to the crowd around him, he paused and began to think of something for them to search for. He continued with an evil fire burning in his eyes. Lightning struck a few buildings far off as he finished, "Some big, juicy, diamonds!"

Still oblivious as to what to do, the crystal ponies stood there in fear of the evil alicorn. They were still trying to face the fact that the Crystal Princess was defeated so easily. A few mumbles came from the crowd, showing the ponies' disagreement to Blackheart's demand.

"Now!" He shouted and stomped his other hoof on the concrete. As he did this, a bolt of lightning struck the top of Cadance's castle, setting the crystal palace aflame with a pitch black fire of chaos. Scalding sparks fell from the top of the castle and onto the crowd of worried ponies. When the sparks fell on their coats, they went right to work. The group of the Crystal Empire's inhabitants spread out from the town square and abandoned their princess with Blackheart.

The only pony who stayed was a small filly, who seemed just a little larger than a newborn. She stepped forward and stuck her tongue out at Blackheart, calling him the most offensive name she knew at the time, "Meanie!"

The alicorn then looked from the crystal homes and buildings and to the small, shiny pink unicorn. As he looked her in her bright blue eyes, he chuckled softly, "Oh is this not cute?" Blackheart leaned forward and got to eye level with her, "What's your name, cutie?" Big mistake.

She quickly launched into the air and bit the alicorn's nose, causing him to stand up straight and yell in pain. The filly let go of his nose with a giggle and dropped onto the ground on all fours. As she prepared to run off, Blackheart grabbed his nose with his hoof and aimed his horn at her. "You're going to pay for that, girl!" His horn became engulfed in a dark red aura as he prepared to fire a blast of magic towards the small filly.

He let out a yell of evil as he fired the strong magic at her. A piercing shriek sounded throughout the Crystal Empire. Before the blast hit the filly, it suddenly ricocheted off of something and flew into the air, exploding into a large ball of red in the sky. She screamed in fear of being hit by the magic.

With a confused expression, Blackheart let his hoof drop onto the ground and stared intently at the blue shield that just saved the filly's life. It was magic. With a smirk, the evil alicorn spoke as she shield faded away. "Well well… If it isn't the 'great' Prince Shining Armor here to save his beloved princess." He turned around and shot the white unicorn a grin of mischief.

Shining Armor ignored his gaze and rushed beside his wife, dropping onto his knees as he did so. "Cadance!" In the background of the scenery, the soft clicking of the filly's hoofsteps slowly faded away as she ran. The pink alicorn replied to him weakly, trying her best to let him know what he was up against before it was too late.

"Sh-Shining Armor… H-He's destroyed the –" Her sentence was cut off by her own violent cough. Refusing to continue the sentence, she gestured to the light green shards that were scattered across the ground with her hoof. The stallion blinked and stared intently at the remnants of the Crystal Heart, his heard dropping into his stomach.

He whispered, "No…"

Blackheart then took a few steps toward Shining Armor, chuckling slightly as his hooves clicked loudly against the concrete. "I'm so glad you could make it, Shining Armor; you've almost missed the party!"

The stallion paid no attention to the evil alicorn as he then carefully hauled his wife onto his back. Making no eye contact with Blackheart, Shining Armor began walking away from him and toward the doorway to the castle, which had stop burning due to Princess Cadance's magical enchantment she put on it.

Suddenly, the evil alicorn disappeared and quickly reappeared beside Shining Armor and his wife, leaning his side against one of the castle's doors. "Ooh, are you angry, prince?"

The white unicorn stayed silent still as he entered the castle and placed Cadance on the closest sofa he could find. As Blackheart's storm of chaos raged outside, the black alicorn stood on the stairway of the castle then, impatiently waiting for Shining Armor to battle him. The prince was going to battle him; that was for sure, but first, he had to tell his wife something that meant more than anything he'd ever said to anyone. "Cadance," he paused and took her face gently with one of his hooves, "I love you…" His eyes sparkled slightly as he looked her in hers, showing the love that would never fade between them.

Cadance was barely able to reply, her voice weak and nearly silent, "I… I love you too." She cracked a weak smile, hoping to bring up Shining Armor's determination to fight.

Outside, Blackheart felt something wrong happening. His pendant on his neck began rattling, its color beginning to slowly change from pitch black to a very dark, faded pink. "No…" With no hesitation, he launched himself through the doors of the castle and pointed a hoof at Shining Armor. Whatever they were doing, it was messing with his pendant, and he didn't like that. "You! We fight **_NOW_**!"

Shining Armor quickly turned around and stared at the larger alicorn with an angered face, "Fine. Let's do this…"

Quickly, the alicorn got into his battle position, readying his horn for a magical battle.

"Wait!" Shining Armor held up a hoof towards him, his eyes wide as he pleaded. "Outside; I don't want to fight in front of her."

Blackheart's pendant began shaking again. He had to get them away from each other. "Of course! Why would I fight in front of her?" The alicorn jokingly smirked as he stood up, turned around, and stepped right out of the castle.

Shining Armor looked back to his wife and gave her a nod in which she sluggishly returned. He followed Blackheart to the town square, where one of the most important battles in the unicorn's life was to occur. "Alright… I'm ready." He narrowed his eyes and prepared his horn for battle, his body changing into its cautious battle position.

Chuckling, Blackheart stomped on the ground and let out a roar, his dark red magic aura surrounding his horn and the entire town square. He soon placed a wall of fire that surrounded the square, destroying any and every chance of somepony coming to help Shining Armor.

The white unicorn tried his best not to fear the magic and look around as his heart pounded hard in his chest. The battle was beginning. This was it. The training he took to become the Captain of the Royal Guard was going to decide if he would walk out of this battle dead or alive. Shining Armor opened his mouth wide and let out a battle cry as he allowed his body to become engulfed by his magic aura. He rushed towards Blackheart with his horn straightforward; he was going head-on.

Blackheart simply grinned and watched; he definitely had something up his sleeve.

* * *

"Oh… My." Fluttershy silently spoke as she looked to the burning ruins of the Crystal Empire. There were mares and stallions screaming as they scaled the streets, large, black shadows chasing behind them. Wait… Shadows? That doesn't sound like the work of Sir Blackheart.

Discord blinked a few times as he thought back to where he first met King Sombra, who first used shadows just like these to get the ponies to understand he was 'unstoppable'. "Oh, this is just perfect…" He said sarcastically.

"What is, Discord?" Twilight asked as she stepped beside the draconequus, gently nudging him with her foreleg.

"The only person I've seen do magic like this," Discord stopped as one of the shadows crashing into a nearby house, causing it to explode instantly. "Is Sombra."

Everypony stared at him in awe, "SOMBRA?!"

"It only makes the most sense, for Sombra was defeated by the Crystal Heart's magic. If the Crystal Heart is destroyed, he is reborn. Think of it in the instance with Luna, Tia and I; they weren't connected to the Elements of Harmony in which they used to trap me, meaning the magic stopped working on me. I was able to escape." He explained to them in the simplest way possible, a scholar's cap hanging off the side of his head as he did so.

Twilight was the first person to understand. As she opened her mouth to speak, a voice cut her off. It was deep, raspy, and most definitely evil. It was Sombra. "Oh, how amazing! More ponies for me to control!"

The unicorn laughed loudly as he dropped onto the ground, his hooves slamming loudly against the concrete. Discord sighed in frustration as he stepped forward, "Sombra, I'm going to say this once; leave the ponies alone or we're going to have to rid of you… For good."

Sombra looked to the draconequus the same way Blackheart did, "What?! Discord, it's been over 1,000 years and you'd rather save ponies than join the side that you taught me to be best in?!"

Tossing the scholar cap away, Discord nodded, "Yes, Sombra, I've changed…" His tone was full of boredom. He'd already been through this!

The others said nothing as they watched the two exchange their words of disappointment and personal change. In the midst of the storm, Discord finally started the fight that was destined to come along between the two. He launched his form towards Sombra, his talons bared and his nails sticking out of his paw. Before he was able to damage the unicorn with a swipe across the face he planned, Discord's attack was blocked by a magical sword Sombra conjured up to block it. From that one attack, the draconequus knew that he battle was going to be long, so he did what he knew what would be best.

"Go to Cadance and rebuild the Crystal Heart with the Elements of Harmony!" The draconequus yelled as he blocked an attack that Sombra threw at him in revenge. "I can hold him off!"

"Discord, are you su-"

Before Twilight could finish asking Discord about his absolute surety of staying behind and fighting King Sombra alone, the draconequus then roared, "Just GO!"

With that, the others galloped off to Princess Cadance's castle. Large shadows zipped across the sky like bullets as they neared the castle. Things were hitting the fan for them, but they knew that if they kept trying, they were going – **BOOM!**

They all stopped as the earsplitting explosion shook the ground and send a magical mushroom cloud into the air. It was coming from the town square.

"Nightfall, go with Applejack and Rainbow Dash and see what that was; the others and I are going to Princess Cadance!" Twilight exclaimed as he prepared to head off towards the castle once more. She knew what she was doing; those three were the most battle-worthy ponies they had with them.

The dark-coated colt nodded instantly and began galloping. Beside him, Applejack replied to Twilight as she rushed towards the town square, "You got it, Twi!" Rainbow Dash silently cheered as she zipped off above the others; finally she got to see some action!

Twilight then ran off with Luna, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie behind her. More explosions rang out around them as they neared the castle, debris thumping at their coats. Suddenly, a large, thick shadow crashed into the ground in front of them, causing them all to stop.

The mares all squealed at the sudden action of one of Sombra's monsters. The shadow stepped from the crater in the ground it created and revealed itself as a large werewolf-like creature, its eyes glowing read and its mouth wide open to show off its 6-inch teeth.

Luna nudged Twilight and stepped forward towards the enemy, her eyes narrowed. She used her magic and took off her cast Nightfall had given her some time ago. "Twilight Sparkle, take your friends and go repair the Crystal Heart; I can handle this."

"But Princess Luna… Your hoof – "

"I know, Twilight," Luna cut off the younger princess, a small grin on her face. "I can handle this… Trust me."

Before Twilight could reject, the shadow-werewolf howled, its breath blowing all of the ponies' hair into different styles. Fluttershy said nothing and zipped away from the entire scene of action, her eyes full of fear. Rarity simply stood there and bawled over her ruined hair, ignoring the situation at hand then.

Twilight picked up Rarity with her magic and galloped behind Fluttershy, screaming back to Luna, "Good luck!" The werewolf paid no attention to the smaller ponies; he had a much larger target to attack and soon enough – to eat.

He snarled and stepped forward towards the moon princess, his feet tapping loudly against the concrete ground. Luna prepared herself for battle as she focused her magic to her horn, allowing it to glow a bright blue aura. In her peripheral view, she could see that Twilight had made it into range of the castle steps.

All of a sudden, she spread her wings and aimed her horn towards the werewolf, who had just launched himself towards her. "Here goes nothing!" The princess shot her magic towards the large shadow-werewolf, insecurity filling her mind; she hadn't used battle magic in centuries!

* * *

**BOOM! Good news, guys; I've reached over 400 views on my story now and it's all thanks to you! 3 I love you all! Though I know that 400 views aren't the super-best within a whole month, but it's something. And you all made that something come true. My fellow bronies and pegasisters; I love you guys. :3 Oh! And sorry that I didn't post this chapter within my usual range (4 days – a week), I got caught up in some serious Civil War homework. But, that's done for and I finished it like a boss! :D**

**Well, until next time… - FrozenAgent47.**


	7. An Unleashing Power

**Hey guys, it's me again. I just want to apologize for the horrible chapter titles I've been coming up with. ._. They're so cheesy, right? Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter and leave a review if you do. Even if you don't, though, leave a review. PLLLLZZZZZZ? ;~; Nah, don't worry about it. You people must be busy and don't have time to leave at least A SENTENCE. e.e" Enjoy! – FrozenAgent47.**

* * *

Luna stared at the scene in front of her with wide eyes, trying her best to keep her legs from trembling beneath her. A cloud of smoke filled the immediate area, causing the moon princess to cough violently. She stepped away and closed her eyes, waving away the smoke she could with her good hoof.

Explosions and screams echoed through the town as she recovered from her own magical attack. It wasn't long until the smoke cleared out, giving Luna a clear sight on the affects of her magic. She opened her eyes after she quit coughing; spotting nothing but a large crater in the ground that emitted a black smoke. The shadow-werewolf that just before threatened her life was nowhere to be found. "Still got it." She inwardly praised herself.

With a small satisfied smirk, Luna began to trot forward victoriously. "_That's _why you don't fool around with royalty…" She perked her chin up and closed her eyes in mild arrogance, preparing to assist Twilight and the others with the revival of the Crystal Heart. Unexpectedly, more shadow-werewolves crashed into the ground – three to be exact. They shook the ground with a thud and looked exactly to the moon princess. Saliva dripped from their mouths as the neared her; it was lunch time.

Luna winced slightly at the loud thud that they caused, but quickly readied herself for more battle. With a battle-ready grin, she stood in a defensive state, ignoring the fact that her injured hoof was still killing her. "Oh, bring it on…"

* * *

"Princess… Cadance?" Twilight asked silently as she stepped in the castle cautiously, her purple optics fixed on the limp alicorn in front of her. Her hooves clicked silently on the marble floor as she neared the sofa that Cadance was laying on. Rarity stayed behind at the door, ready to fight anything that neared the castle.

Princess Cadance was able to reply with a soft groan that made Twilight's heart skip a beat and her ears perk up. The small alicorn rushed over to her former foalsitter and sat next to the sofa, now raising her voice slightly, "Cadance!" A small smile was planted on her face as she looked towards Cadance, who had just rolled over to face her.

The Crystal Princess had spoken with a gruff, deathly voice, her eyes coat grayish. "Twilight… You must listen closely…" Twilight did as told and leaned in closer to her, listening her hardest to the next words she had to speak that were nearly whispers. Rarity closed the door to block out the loud explosions and screams that came from the empire outside, sniffling slightly at the scene that played out before her.

"The Crystal Heart… It can't… Be revived with friendship…" Cadance coughed and trembled slightly as she closed her eyes. It was obviously that she was going to give away any second, but she _had_ to get the news to Twilight, it was the only way. "Only love… Can bring it back… There's only one reason… Blackheart destroyed the heart…" With those words, the alicorn began fading, her entire body dissolving into small hearts that fluttered into the air and disappeared. As she vanished, a whispering voice came from the air and echoed in only Twilight's ears, "Love…"

Saying nothing, Twilight dropped onto the ground and began sobbing. There was no need to explain why, for she just lost her mentor; her best friend; her _big sister._ As the small alicorn's cries echoed through the immense castle, Rarity stepped away from the door and placed her hoof on Twilight's shoulder.

"Darling, look at me," she said through tears. The white unicorn pulled on her friend's shoulder, speaking through gritted teeth as Twilight refused to make eye contact with her, "Twilight. Look at me."

Soon enough, she turned her head and stared Rarity in her light blue eyes, saying nothing at all. That was all she needed to begin what she had to say, "Don't be like this. Our friends are out there fighting for us and we simply cannot be here crying!" She meant these words, despite the fact that she too was shedding tears of her own.

"Rarity, you don't get it! I -"

"But I _do_, Twilight! You think life is just dresses and make up for me? It's not! You're not the only pony with feelings, okay?!"

Twilight looked to the floor in shame then; how dare she say that? Rarity took the alicorn's chin with her hoof and stared her deep in the eyes, "We're going to go out there and show those dirty mongrels who's the boss, correct?"

At that moment, she could feel her hope jump up instantly. They can do this! _They can do this!_ But, of course, she needed a plan. Twilight sat up and rubbed the tears from her eyes. "Right," she answered Rarity's question, a slight smirk on her face. "Okay, here's what we're going to – wait… Where's Pinkie Pie?"

The two looked around, confused as to where their always-jumpy friend went in the 'battlefield'.

* * *

"Ta-daa!" Pinkie Pie said as she finished her 6th encore she had thrown out for the crowd of shadow-werewolves and other shadow creatures. A large smile crossed her face as she panted hard, dropping her cane and top hat she held in her hooves. She knew she was pushing on her luck dancing for a crowd of pony-hungry, evil-only beasts brought to life by a being of pure hatred, but what the hoof, she didn't care; it was fun!

When she expected a roar of anger and evil, Pinkie Pie's eyes went wide as she received the exact opposite. The entire crowd in front of her suddenly burst into applause, clapping their paws and claws and many other appendages. With wide blue eyes, the pink Earth pony took a humble bow and waved out to her fans, "Thank you all so much! You're the greatest!"

Roses were being thrown at her feet as she dropped onto her knees in tears of joy. She never had a crowd like this. "I love you all!" Some of the creatures even hopped up on the stage and picked her up, chanting her name.

"**Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie! Pinkie Pie!**"

Pinkie looked down at the creatures carrying her and saw that the shadows that clung to their bodies began to fade. She suddenly began to see that they weren't created by Sombra, they were _controlled_ by him, and she just changed that. The werewolves' fur changed back to its natural brown and their eyes went back to normal as well. All of the other creatures, including dragons and griffins as well as other ponies also began to gain their normal appearances. "Hey… You guys aren't evil after all, huh?"

The dragon below her took her into his arms, "Not at all, Pinkie." Everyone else behind him agreed. "It was a long time ago, before King Sombra settled here; he came to all of our lands and took over our lives with his evil magic."

Pinkie popped out of his grasp and landed on her hind legs, a Rambo jacket hanging loosely over her form then. "How evil! You guys ready to get payback?" Though the pink earth pony was always playful, she was absolutely serious at that moment. Wait, Pinkie Pie – serious?

Only weird glances and concerned mumbles came from the crowd in front of her. They were all obviously scared to fight the pony that made them the bad things they were. It was disappointing, yes, but Pinkie Pie had a world to save; she couldn't wait for a group of fearful monsters to make their decision whether to fight Sombra and save Equestria or not. With a grumble, she tossed off her jacket and got on all fours. She seemed like she was going to say something until a feminine screech shot into the air. It was Rainbow. With no hesitation, Pinkie tossed the immediate situation aside and rushed to the town square, where she heard the scream come from. "I'm coming Rainbow!" A trail of confetti followed her there.

* * *

"Ah!" Rainbow Dash yelled in pain as she crashed into the wall of a nearby house, a loud thud echoing through the town square. The light blue pegasus dropped onto the ground with a groan, squirming slowly on the cold concrete.

With no hesitation, Applejack ran over to her with wide eyes and yelled, "Rainbow!" The orange earth pony helped her up quickly and looked back to Sir Blackheart, who was preparing to attack his next victim, Nightfall.

Nightfall looked up to the dark alicorn with a smirk, his purple eyes sparkling with spirit. "So, you're the 'almighty' Sir Blackheart, huh?"

The alicorn chuckled slightly and looked down at the colt, nodding his head arrogantly, "I am. And you're Nightfall, correct?"

"H-How –"

"Being asleep still has its sense of consciousness, you know… But that's beside the point; I want to explain how your doom is inevitable from this point on!" Blackheart spread his wings and took off not too high in the air. He pointed a hoof at Shining Armor, who was lying on the ground near Rainbow Dash and Applejack, "As I told him; even if you did place the spell on me, Nightfall, I would've escaped anyway."

The colt angrily replied with two words, "You're bluffing!"

"Am I?" With another evil chuckle, he began to explain why he was 'unstoppable' now. "While I was asleep, I had a dream, but it was no dream about escaping and controlling Equestria like the last nine centuries. No, I was visited by a being of chaos; a _goddess_ of chaos."

Applejack whispered to Rainbow Dash, who she held up with her foreleg around her, "Now would be a good time for Twilight 'ta show up… Who's this 'goddess' of chaos he's talkin' about?" Dash replied silently with a shrug, her eyes shut tight in pain.

Nightfall shared the same expression as the mares to his right, "Who?!"

"You'll find out soon enough…" He said with an evil tone, now finishing his story of his rebirth, "She came to me and told me that she'd bring me back if I took Equestria for her until she arrives. What she doesn't know is that I'm unstoppable now, and when she makes it here, I'll be the true ruler!"

"So, really, you started off as an underdog?" Nightfall asked teasingly, placing himself in a battle stance. A dark purple aura surrounded his horn as he stared into the evil alicorn's eyes.

All of a sudden, Blackheart launched his form towards the colt, a dark red aura covering his entire form as he shot at him like an arrow. With wide eyes, the colt jumped to the right in attempt to dodge the attack.

A wave of smoke flew into the air as well as debris from the concrete ground. Nightfall tumbled over to the right, a sharp pain jolting through his side. With tightly closed eyes, the colt used his magic to stop him from sliding against the ground. Seeing how he was hurt while he attempted to dodge the attack, he could only wonder what would've happened if he hadn't moved at all. He trembled at the thought of certain death.

The smoke soon cleared out, revealing Blackheart holding his pendant in the air with his magic. It was emitting a vibrant scarlet, for its power was growing stronger and stronger. As he chuckled some, he began stepping towards the three ponies who attempted to defeat him after he took down the Crystal Prince. "And this is what you get from fighting against somepony you'll never be able to defeat!" From what everypony could see, his sentence was true; his victory was becoming clearer and clearer. "It's over…"

"Not on my watch!"

"Hm?" The evil alicorn turned around to find a pony he never expected to be alive. Fluttershy stood there, her head high and her light blue eyes full of strength. Blackheart let out a loud laugh, "HAH! Really?! The weakest link in all of Equestria telling me what's what; that's hilarious!" Obviously not taking the yellow pegasus seriously, he looked away and began laughing harder.

His joy was cut off once more by another one of the Mane Six, "But it's true, I bet you!" Pinkie Pie said as the skidded to a stop next to Fluttershy. Before the moment could get any more serious, she let out a quick giggle and said, "Hehee! That rhymed."

Sighing loudly, Blackheart stomped a hoof on the ground, "Oh, come on! Must you really interrupt my moments?!"

"Well, it's necessary, so I guess so!" Pinkie said back with power, stomping her hoof on the ground too.

"Okay, fine, let's get this over with…" The alicorn said as he looked to her with a dull expression.

Pinkie Pie gestured Applejack and Rainbow Dash to join the battle with her hoof. Even though they were tired and battle-worn, they both made their way over to their friends and stood in front of Blackheart. The alicorn looked upon all of them and questioned why they were all lining up for certain doom. Nightfall, who was still in excruciating pain, stood up as well and limped over to the others. "If you're going to fight one of us; you're going to fight all of us…"

"Oh? Really?" Blackheart placed his pendant on his neck again, preparing to fight once more.

"Really!" another voice from behind him said. As he turned around to see who in their right mind would cut in on his moment once more, a hoof slammed into his cheek. The alicorn stumbled over in pain, groaning as his attacker landed on the ground silently.

The others hollered happily to Blackheart's attacker, "Twilight!"

She smiled and gave a quick wave to them before she looked to her left and saw Shining Armor, who was lying motionlessly on the ground. With wide eyes, she ran over to him, tears welling up in her eyes again. As Rarity entered the scene, the others rushed over to them, ignoring Blackheart completely. The white unicorn instantly followed.

Seeing that he wasn't moving, Twilight placed her hooves on her brother's chest and fought the tears that threatened to escape her eyes. She wasn't ready to lose anypony else! Not so soon! "Shining Armor, wake up! Please don't leave me!"

As if on cue, the stallion's eyes opened wide as he came to consciousness. He let out a cry of fear as he jolted upwards, yelling the one name that came to his mind first. "Twily!"

She pushed down on him gently and looked him in his eyes, speaking calmly. "I'm here, Shining Armor. Don't worry, I'm okay." Everypony around them sighed in relief.

"Wh-What happened? Where are we? Where's Cadance?!" The stallion instantly hopped onto all four of his hooves and looked around the destroyed town square. His blue eyes stopped on the one who caused it all. "Blackheart…" Anger suddenly filled his stomach as he saw the still-stumbling alicorn. He pushed past the others and stared up at the alicorn who was recovering from the kick he received from Twilight.

Blackheart stood straight and stared down to Shining Armor, "Oh, you're still alive?" He let his hoof from drop his cheek and spoke with an unimpressed tone.

"Alive and ready to bring you down, Blackheart," the stallion replied with a cloud of steam rushing out of his nose.

Though he was hiding it, the evil alicorn was wondering how the Crystal Prince was still standing with no means of injury or pain. "Well, let's finish our battle, prince…" He prepared himself for battle _again_ as he set his horn aflame with his magic aura.

Within the background of the soon-coming fight, Twilight looked around to her friends around her and realized something that would've changed the course of everything at that moment. They could finally use the Elements of Harmony to fix the Crystal – Wait…

_"Only love… Can bring it back… There's only one reason… Blackheart destroyed the heart… __**Love…**__"_

Twilight's heart dropped. How in the hoof was she going to_ find _love?! It made no sense! There had to be a way… Something… Maybe – **BOOM! **

Her thoughts were cut off by the sound of Shining Armor's hoof slamming against Sir Blackheart's magical shield. With wide eyes, she switched her gaze to the two fighting stallions. Shining Armor had scowled towards the alicorn as he landed on the ground. After what seemed like hours, they both rushed at each other again, blocking and dodging each other's powerful attacks. The Crystal Prince seemed as if he were straining every muscle in his body while Blackheart was simply playing along with the battle he was sure to win.

There was only one thing Twilight could think of doing to defeat Blackheart, and even _that_ she was unsure if it was going to work. "Girls, it's time to use the Elements of Harmony."

Rarity cut in, attempting to remind the purple alicorn what Cadance said, "But, Twilight –"

"I know Rarity, but we have only one choice for now. Girls; formation!" the alicorn hollered out demandingly.

They all did as told, standing in their line with their Elements of Harmony at the ready. Nightfall stepped out of the way and simply watched them work their magic. With Twilight standing in front of the others, she began to start the 'spark'. As she did so, she yelled out to her brother, "Shining Armor!"

The white unicorn backed away and dodged Blackheart's attack, looking back to his younger sister for a brief moment. "Yeah?!" He winced slightly at the feeling of debris hitting his coat from the evil alicorn's attack.

"Get out of the way!"

With no hesitation, the stallion jumped away from another one of Blackheart's attacks. The evil alicorn looked away from Shining Armor and pulled his hoof from the ground, changing his dark glare to the Mane Six, who were suddenly swallowed up by a bright, multicolored aura. "What's this?" He raised an eyebrow as he turned his form to the floating ponies in front of him.

The Elements of Harmony shot a blast of magic towards him, an earsplitting screech echoing through all of Northern Equestria. Before Blackheart could move a muscle, the magic slammed against him, sending a wave of total destruction in all directions. A bright light blinded everypony and every_thing_ in the Crystal Empire as the Mane Six's magic inevitably defeated Sir Blackheart… Or did it?

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**CLIFFHANGER! Sorry guys, I just had to do it. e.e" Anywho (I use that word a lot, don't I?); this is going to get big and amazing and confusing and fast-paced and so much more after this chapter! Thanks for checking out this chapter guys and I really hope that you enjoyed it. I'm giving out cookies to my faithful fans now, so be sure to be awesome and you get cookies! :D **

**Okay, now it's time to get down to real business; I feel like I'm making this story too dark for MLP. Do you guys feel the same way? I really hope not. That's the ****_last_**** thing I want this story to be. Grimdark – ugh. All I'm trying to do is make it seem like sh*t's hitting the fan for Equestria. :c **

**Oh, and I can bet you're a bit angry at me for 'killing off' Cadance. Well, that's where you're all ****_wrong_****. I'll just leave it at that. *Chuckles mischievously* Once again, thanks for checking this chapter out and I hope you can keep supporting me with your awesomeness! Yes, you guys are awesome! :3 – FrozenAgent47.**


	8. Another Way Around

**I'm SO sorry I've been seeming so distant peeps (if you cared…)! It's the end of the school year for me and I'm just trying to get my grades as high as possible before heading off to high school so… Yeah. :c I hope you guys enjoy this chapter in which I've worked oh so hard not to make grimdark. If you see some bad thingies, review, but most importantly; if you see good thingies here, review. Uhm, I love you all who've stuck with me so far and I hope you keep supporting me with your loviez. :D Enjoy!**

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"Twilight, Twilight wake up!" a familiar voice rang in the purple alicorn's ears as she came to consciousness. Slowly opening her eyes, she could see a dark-coated colt above her holding her in his forelegs.

She let out a gasp as she squirmed in Nightfall's grasp, speaking gibberish as she awoke. Staring into his dark purple eyes, Twilight allowed herself to calm down. Nightfall slightly smiled above her, joy growing inside of him as he saw his love – oh, how it felt different to call her that – come back to the land of the living. The purple alicorn whispered as she looked at her surroundings; they were in a house. "Wh-Where are we?"

Nightfall had to recheck where they were. He broke their gaze and look note of the area around them, "Uh… I don't know, but we're safe." Smiling warmly, he looked back to down to her.

"Where are the others?" Twilight quickly jumped to the next subject. As a princess, she obviously took her responsibilities for her subjects, her _friends_ seriously. She pulled herself to her hooves and looked to Nightfall, surprised that she didn't drop down in unbearable pain.

Nightfall stood as well, staring at the wooden floor as the words sparked the memory within his mind. Reliving the moment that just passed, the colt looked Twilight in her eyes and began speaking with an absolutely serious tone, "When you and the others used the Elements of Harmony against Sir Blackheart…" His voice trailed off; there was something bad destined to come.

Twilight took a step towards him, her eyes filling with worry, "…Yeah?"

"There was an explosion that blinded everypony. I think I was the first to recover from it. When I started to get up, I could see Blackheart in the middle of the smoke. He seemed perfectly fine. Because you and the others were still unconscious, I got ready to battle him myself, but…"

Her heart dropped; Blackheart was still alive?! All of that work - and the threat to Equestria was _still alive?!_ What would Celestia think of how she failed to save her own world? What would happen to her friends and family? Twilight shook these demoting thoughts out of her head and echoed Nightfall's last word, "But?"

Nightfall sighed and continued the story, "Discord came in, but he didn't look too well. He seemed battle-worn. Before I was able to fight Blackheart, he told me…"

_**Flashback~**_

_The draconequus looked back to the colt and yelled demandingly, his voice full of a seriousness nopony ever knew he withheld, "Take Twilight and get out of here, kid! She's our only chance of survival!" _

_ Nightfall quickly rushed over to the limp alicorn and hauled her onto his back. He looked into Discord's eyes with worry, "What about the others?" He ignored the questioned that popped in the back of his mind that asked, 'what does he mean by Twilight being our only chance of survival?'_

_ "Don't worry; I'll take care of them. Just go!" Before Discord could say anymore, Blackheart launched toward him with his hoof extended forward for what would've been a devastating blow to the draconequus. But, he leaned backward and dodged the evil alicorn's attack by mere inches. As he recovered from his evasion, he snapped his claws toward the other unconscious ponies and caused them to disappear. _

_ Blackheart landed and growled loudly as he turned back to Discord, "Saving your little pony friends won't help you Discord… It's all __**over**__…" The draconequus said nothing and readied himself for a battle he wasn't so sure if he was going to lose or not. Nightfall heard that Discord was unstoppable; a super-beast (coming from Discord himself) that nopony could stop, but King Sombra must have done something that wore him out, because he wasn't looking to good._

_ The colt turned around and galloped away from the battlefield, wishing hope upon the draconequus he barely even knew. He saw that Discord most likely took care of King Sombra, but he wasn't sure if he was in the shape to take on Blackheart. Only time would tell… _

Twilight slammed a hoof on the ground and blew out a cloud of steam from her nostrils. "Alright, if Blackheart wants to play that way, we can play that way." She took her crown from the top of her head and tossed it aside, allowing it to drop loudly on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Nightfall asked with worry, ignoring an explosion that shook the ground; it had to be right outside of the house they were in.

"I'm fixing this once and for all." The alicorn opened the door with her magic and kept her eyes narrowed. She took a step outside and spoke back to the colt, who was right behind her in the doorway, "Find the others. I need you to follow these specific orders." She didn't look back to him as she spoke, showing her true anger she got oh so tired of holding in. "If you find Rainbow Dash or Applejack, tell them to meet me at the Crystal Castle. Pinkie Pie; tell her to –."

"Twilight, hey!" The pink pony mentioned before approached the two on the back of a giant werewolf, waving happily to her friend with a large smile on her face.

Twilight couldn't help but crack a small grin, but then that was overcome by a sense of strong confusion. "Pinkie! Wait… What are you doing with… Them?" She gestured to the something-hundred monsters behind her.

Still, with her large smile, Pinkie looked back to her newly-found friends behind her. "Who? These guys?" She then looked back to the purple alicorn and giggled, "They're my friends, silly!"

"But… Aren't they…"

Twilight's question was cut off by the deep voice of the werewolf that was carrying Pinkie Pie, "Monsters? You can call us that, but that'd be like us simply calling you ponies. We've names, you know…" His voice was stereotypically deep and raspy, for he was a monster, but it had a sense of warm friendliness that he _had_ to have caught from Pinkie.

After blinking a few times, Twilight looked down to the werewolf and took an apologetic bow. "I'm sorry, sir. It's just that you were evil before…"

"It wasn't our fault. Sombra was controlling us with his evil…" The werewolf explained briefly, his dark red eyes shining in the small amount of light that escaped through the gloomy clouds that screamed evil over the lands of Equestria.

"Yup! But now, they're good and ready to beat some evil butt!" Pinkie Pie hopped off of the werewolf's back and kicked the air in a ninja-like manner. As she landed, the pink earth pony snarled and let out a battle cry.

Twilight giggled slightly, sharing the same feeling towards Pinkie Pie as the crowd of monsters, who were laughing at her some as well. Even Nightfall had chuckled slightly at the pony's 'alertness' to the situation at hand. Seeing the sudden boost of allies to fight against Blackheart and Sombra, Twilight felt something spark inside of her; a good idea.

"Pinkie," Twilight expression grew serious once more. Her friend innocently sat on her bottom and looked to her with large blue eyes. "I want you to go to the town square with your friends and assist Discord with fighting Sir Blackheart."

"Roger that, ma'am-commander-princess-Twilight!" Pinkie Pie hopped up quickly and saluted towards the purple alicorn. With those words, she turned towards the monsters and waved a hoof towards herself, "C'mon guys, let's go make things go boom!" She happily bounced off into the distance, the monsters following right behind her. The battle was truly going to begin.

As the others left, Twilight looked back to Nightfall and started to finish her plan. "Alright, so I want you to look for the others. If you don't find them all in 10 minutes, meet me at the Crystal Castle, I have a plan…"

"Alright, I'll see you then." Before the colt could say anything else, the princess began to gallop the opposite way from him. He yelled to her before she got too far away from him, still needing to say something important. "Twilight!"

She instantly stopped and looked back to him, saying nothing. With worry-filled eyes, he passionately spoke. "Be careful!"

"I will!" With that, Twilight ran off to find her friends and so did Nightfall, but little did they know true destruction was on its way…

* * *

"Yah! Ha, take that you wacko!" Rainbow Dash ferociously yelled as she gave an uppercut to one of the shadow creatures. As she watched her target drop to the ground in pain, the light blue pegasus turned around and stared to the other monsters that hesitated to attack her. Floating above her 50-something victims, she could see exactly why they didn't want to match up against her; it wouldn't be a fair match!

She flapped her wings and quickly zipped in front of the group of creatures, pounding her hooves together. She raised on of her eyebrows and smirked, "Anybody else want some of this?" With that, the monsters ran off, taking any route to escape they could find.

Staring then into the empty street, Rainbow laughed at the cowards she obviously overpowered, "Haha! And you guys were supposed to be monsters!" As her laughs began to fall into silent chuckles, Dash finally decided to find the others, her expression turning serious, "Okay… Now it's time to find out what the heck happened and where my friends are."

She couldn't remember much of what happened after her and the others used the Elements of Harmony, but she knew it wasn't good. If they'd defeated Blackheart, wouldn't these things be gone? Well, she had no time to figure that out, she just knew that she had to find her friends and finish saving Equestria.

"Rainbow Dash!" A familiar feminine voice called after her, causing her to stop in her tracks. It was a voice she was longing to hear.

A smile grew on Rainbow's face as she turned around and yelled back to where the southern accented voice came from, "Applejack!" She quickly flew down to her friend, a sense of relief filling her stomach. Then, a sense of confusion filled her mind. "What happened?"

"Ah wish ah could tell 'ya, Dash, but ah ain't go no idea what tricks Blackheart could'a thrown at us."

"Do you think the Elements of Harmony worked on him?" Rainbow asked, a sense of fear coming from her face. Well, that was new.

Applejack stared her friend in the eyes as she placed a hoof on her shoulder, "Ah'll tell 'ya no lie; ah dunno, but if the Elements of Harmony didn't defeat him, we'll do it ourselves." With determination and pride in her green optics, she gave a small smile to Rainbow Dash.

Dash nodded and smirked, arrogantly pulling away from Applejack's hoof. "Yeah! We don't need the Elements! We're definitely like… 20% cooler than them!"

The orange earth pony rolled her eyes and silently snickered. Even though Rainbow could be amazingly annoying with her arrogance, it was what made her who she was, and that's why Applejack loved her. "That's the spirit, sugarcube! Now, let's go find our friends!"

"You got it sist-"

"Wait! guys!" Nightfall said through pants as she slowly trotted toward them. "I… Twilight sent me to… Find you guys…"

Both of the ponies turned and looked to him with confused expression, "What?"

"No time… To explain… Just… Come with me to the… Crystal Castle…" The colt lazily trotted past the two and kept his head high, carefully watching if some of the monsters in the air would decide to crash near them. He didn't expect for Twilight's plan to make progress _this_ early. With a slight smirk, he let pride fill up in his stomach; there was actually a chance for them to defeat Blackheart. But, that all depended on the new plan Twilight had come up with. Rainbow Dash and Applejack followed right behind him, their eyes scanning the skies for any hostiles that decided to be foolish enough to attack them.

* * *

"Fluttershy, you must come out, darling! We've to save Equestria!" Rarity grunted as she pulled on the yellow pegasus's tail, trying her hardest to haul her out of the small bush that seemed to be the only cover she could find. She'd been at this ever since she awoke beside the fragile pony, and yet her attempts seemed futile.

"I… I can't!" Fluttershy silently 'yelled' back, pressing her face in the leaves and kicking at the white unicorn ferociously. Being kicked with one of her hooves, Rarity groaned in anger and let go of her tail. She backed away from the bush and stood there, her eyes full of annoyance.

"You were just out there fighting against Blackheart, Fluttershy, you can't be telling me that a few monsters in the sky are causing you to fret!"

The bush shook as she replied to Rarity's statement, "I can tell you that and they are!"

With another groan, Rarity placed a hoof on her forehead; she could feel a migraine coming on. "Your friends are counting on you, dear. We need you out here fighting with us."

"I'm sorry, I just can't…"

"Not if I can help it," Twilight said, gallantly entering the scene with Shining Armor beside her. Using her magic, the purple alicorn picked up Fluttershy and placed her in the middle of the road; in the open.

Fluttershy instantly squealed in fear as she tried to rush back into her cover, but Twilight's magic kept her in place. Stepping toward the yellow pegasus, Twilight began to calmly speak, "Fluttershy, listen; we really need your help. The Elements of Harmony didn't work on Blackheart, so I've come up with a different plan."

"Wh-What's the plan?" She shyly replied, curling herself into a ball.

Twilight picked Fluttershy up in the air and began trotting to the Crystal Castle, which wasn't that far from where they were. "I'll tell you when we get to the Crystal Castle, okay?" The others followed right behind her.

Barely minding being held in the air, Fluttershy simply watched the skies intently and every time she saw a monster zip past, she flinched and squealed in fear. "Okay…"

Looking back to Rarity, who was pretty silent in the immediate situation, Twilight spoke to her. "Are you okay, Rarity?"

Rarity, patted her hair gently and replied fancily, "Oh, I'm fine, but I could use a hair-due, though. I don't think I'm necessarily cut out for this battle stuff. "

"You don't say…" Twilight replied in a mumble, looking forward once more as she began to near the castle. Ignoring the fact that Fluttershy and Rarity had some obvious downsides to fighting for Equestria, she could say that the plan she had come up with was going to be perfect. Well, like always… Only time could tell.

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**Yeah, shorter chapter; gotta make the other one big. :/ Thanks for checking out this chapter, I hope you enjoyed and even if you didn't, please review! (I'm considering stopping asking for reviews, it's not really doing much, is it? e.e) Well, until next time… - FrozenAgent47.**


	9. The Goddess of Chaos

**ZOMG! We've done it guys! A Change of Heart has finally reached 1,000 views! :D I'm not going to give a giant speech because I know you guys probably hate those, but I want to say thank you SOOO much for sticking along with me and helping me achieve this milestone! You guys are awesome. Anywho, getting to the story; I hope you enjoy this chapter. :D**

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Twilight stepped into the Crystal Castle slowly, her eyes locking instantly on the three ponies that stood in the lobby. A smile crawled across her face as she burst through the doors happily, rushing right into the chest of the dark-coated colt. "Nightfall!"

With wide eyes, the colt wrapped his arms around her and chuckled slightly, "I uh… Missed you too… Even though it's been only about 3 minutes…"

Before the young princess could say anything back, she felt Nightfall suddenly fly out of her hooves and land roughly on the crystal floor. Gasps came from the group of ponies as Shining Armor tackled Nightfall on the floor violently, a trail of anger riddling across his face. The white unicorn ignored his sister's call for him to stop as he spoke to the younger colt through gritted teeth, "Who are you?"

Squirming weakly underneath Shining Armor's hold, Nightfall was able to whisper a few pained words. "I… I'm Nightfall; son of Sir Knight Wing of Darkadia." Didn't they meet before? Too bad he couldn't ask with super tough hooves wrapped around his neck.

Shining Armor loosened his grip on the colt's neck and parroted his last words, "Sir… Knight Wing of Darkadia?"

He coughed and took in some deep breaths, staring up to the stallion with tear-filled eyes, "Y-Yes."

"You're a part of the Royal Guard that banished Sir Blackheart," Shining Armor said in awe, releasing his grip on Nightfall and standing to his hooves.

Standing up as well, Nightfall took hold of his neck with one of his hooves, narrowing his eyes in pain. "Yeah… I see you know your Guardian history…"

Ignoring the slight disrespect the colt put forth in his sentence, Shining Armor switched the subject to why he first attacked Nightfall, "Yeah, but that doesn't explain why you were touching my sister like that!"

Then, it was Twilight's turn to speak. "Shining Armor," she said as she stepped in between the two unicorns. As she looked up to her brother, she thought deeply about how she wanted to say what she had to say. But, he didn't have all day, so she just went with the first words that came to her mind. "I really like Nightfall."

Behind her, Nightfall raised his head a bit higher than it was and triumphantly stared to the stallion. Twilight blushed and looked to the ground, waiting for the largest lecture filled with anger from her brother. To her surprise, it was a simple pat on the head and some short sentences. She looked up to her brother with a confused expression as he spoke, "Look, Twily, I understand exactly where you're coming from… How do you think mom and dad acted when I told them I thought about marrying Cadance? But, I'm pretty sure that you should tell me you like a colt before you start hugging him in front of me…"

"So… You're not mad?" Twilight looked up with large, sparkly eyes and smiled innocently to her older brother.

"Mad? No!" He chuckled some before he continued with a more serious tone, "Watchful? Definitely." Shining Armor then looked to Nightfall and sent him a death glare. The colt gulped with wide eyes, showing the fear he held toward the stallion. All Nightfall could be was grateful that Shining Armor knew nothing about the kiss.

The lavender alicorn looked around to her friends with a large smile and gestured them to come close. "Okay guys, it's time to finish this fight."

As the others huddled around Twilight, Shining Armor stood in the space between Nightfall and his younger sister, proving that he was serious about his watchfulness. After the ponies got together the lavender alicorn began to start her plan. "So, here's what we're going to do… Fluttershy, I want you to –"

Twilight's sentence was cut off by the loud slamming of the castle doors. Princess Luna came stumbling in, panting loudly, "Twilight… Discord and… Your pink friend… They need assistance fighting Blackheart!" Everypony turned and looked to her with shocked expressions.

Her heart skipped a beat at the sound of the dark purple princess's voice. Turning around, Twilight realized that she had to change her plan quickly as she comprehended the words she just heard. "Princess Luna!"

Limping toward the others, Luna continued on the urgent news she had to give, "You must go help them immediately! It won't be long until they are defeated!"

All of a sudden, Rainbow Dash zipped out of the castle, bursting loudly through the doors. A rainbow followed right behind her as she left to help her friends. Outside of the castle, there was a loud explosion that shook the ground violently. Two words filled everpony's mind as Rainbow left the castle; Sonic Rainboom.

This was impossible! It hadn't even been 15 minutes since Pinkie and her monsters went to fight Blackheart with Discord and they're _losing?!_ How in Celestia's name did that come to be?! Twilight spoke through gritted teeth, trying her best to hold in the anger she felt. "Change of plans…"

All eyes fell on the lavender alicorn as she continued on her plan. Twilight eyed Luna and noticed she was injured; it wasn't lethal, but it needed attention. "Fluttershy, I want you to stay here with Princess Luna and tend to her wounds. Shining Armor and Nightfall, I want you two to gather up all of the stallions you can find and get them ready for battle. Rarity and Applejack, you're coming with me to help Rainbow Dash fight Blackheart."

Everypony understood their tasks, and yelled out in unison, "You got it!" Twilight nodded to them all and burst through the doors, Applejack and Rarity following right behind her. To their right, Nightfall and Shining Armor ran into the streets to gather up the stallions that were willing to fight for their empire.

As her heart pounded, Twilight could only wonder what the battle had gone like with Blackheart and Discord and Pinkie Pie. "Celestia please let them be okay," she whispered, fighting the tears of worry in her eyes.

* * *

Far west of the Crystal Empire, a massive shadow covered the land below the skies, killing all of the plants instantly once they were engulfed in the darkness. This was no magic of Sir Blackheart, nor of King Sombra's; it was much worse. The goddess of chaos chuckled evilly as she began to near the empire, her limbs filling with a disgusting pleasure as she imagined what she'd do to Equestria now that she was there.

"Let's see what Blackheart has in store for me today…" A few more evil giggles came from the goddess as she stopped flying forward, causing her wings - which were two different kinds; a black dragon wing and a large white angel wing – to flap gently. Floating in mid-air then, she looked closely to the burning Crystal Empire, watching ponies scream and run from far away. She felt a small sense of pride in her subject Blackheart as she saw the evil shadows zip across the sky and explode on impact on the ground. "Clever." She was assuming this was Blackheart's final destination to destroy before she arrived, that's where her tiny bit of pride came from. But little did she know; she was absolutely wrong.

She'd seen enough of Blackheart's work for today; it was her turn to do what she did best – better than any other being in the multiverse; create true chaos. The goddess flapped her wings and burst forward with an explosion behind her that left a black portal-looking aura hanging in the air. Smirking, she let her usually-green eyes to fill with a lava red as she began to get closer to the empire, closer to destruction.

* * *

Pinkie Pie whined loudly as she looked up to Blackheart, who had just defeated all of her monster friends, "Why can't you just be nice?!" She pouted as tears built up in her eyes; she didn't like stuff that wasn't happy or fun, let alone anything _evil!_!

"You see, Pinkie, darling…" Blackheart jokingly imitated Rarity as he stepped over the defeated monsters and leaned over to speak to the pink pony. "Some things are meant to be evil," he went back to his normal tone and raised a hoof, "I don't see how you misunderstand this." With that, he pressed his hoof on her forehead with force, making her stumble and fall back on the concrete behind her.

Recovering from the attack, Pinkie Pie sat up and closed her eyes tightly. Discord instantly knew what was coming next, so he put his talon and his finger in his ears and gave a smirk to Blackheart. Being oblivious to what was going on, the evil alicorn stood there, wondering why the draconequus was smirking.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Pinkie Pie burst out crying, a river of tears flying into the air as she sat there, bawling her eyes out like a baby. It went silent for a second, but not for long; the pink pony was just taking breath. Then, her wail came back with a vengeance; even louder. "**WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"**

Instantly, Blackheart dropped to his knees and covered his ears in pain. Discord took this window wisely as he placed a pair of earplugs in his ears and zipped off toward the evil alicorn with a balled fist. As he ignored the pain that was inflicted by Sombra before, Discord let his paw run directly into Blackheart's chin.

The alicorn flew into the air with a yell of pain. Taking this opportunity to at least _try_ to win the battle, Discord quickly flew over to Pinkie Pie and picked her up, rocking her gently in his arms, "Pinkie, it's okay, but I'm going to need you to listen, okay?"

She hopped up from his arms and saluted with a large smile, "You got it, sir!" How in the world did a pony go from crying like an infant to saluting like a soldier within mere seconds? Nopony or _draconequus_ could know. But, he had no time to be questioning Pinkie's 'logic'; he had to try to save Equestria, the land he too once tried to control with chaos. It's amazing what a reformation could do to an individual…

"I want you to go with Twilight and the others; we can't beat him here alone, but if you bring the others, we might have a chance of defeating Blackheart."

Pinkie Pie giggled and nodded as she hopped out of his arms, screaming her words that signified her understanding of what she was told, "Okie dokie lokie!" With that, the pink pony prepared to rush out of the town square until she bumped into the pony she was supposed to be looking for.

"Pinkie!" Twilight smiled brightly and trotted into the town square, Rarity and Applejack following right behind her. Pinkie Pie turned around and stood right beside her as they all stopped and looked up to Blackheart, who was landing on the ground rubbing his chin with his hoof.

A sense of frustration trailed across his face as his eyes fell upon the other ponies, "Really?! You're back for more?!"

"No, we're here to defeat you!" Rarity replied as she stepped forward, stomping a hoof on the concrete as she did so.

Twilight searched around the area and let a confused expression take over. She looked to Pinkie Pie and whispered as Rarity and Blackheart threw offensive words at each other, "Where's Rainbow Dash?"

Pinkie whispered back, shrugging as she replied to the question, "I'unno. She never came here."

The lavender alicorn's heart sunk as she heard that her pegasus friend wasn't where she thought she would go. Had she abandoned them? No… She was the Element of Loyalty; she'd never do that… Again. Thinking to herself, Twilight stepped beside Rarity, "_Well, I guess we're going to have to do this on our own…_"

"…Forget it! I'm not going to argue with a stuck-up pony who'll never be able to defeat me!" Blackheart said, showing that Rarity's words had gotten through to him. "I am _King_ Blackheart of Equestria! This is my land and it will be forever! No one will defeat me! I am the strongest!"

"Yeah, well what about the 'goddess of chaos' you spoke of before?" Twilight questioned, a smirk placed on her face.

Changing his gaze to the lavender alicorn, he scoffed and replied to her question, "Who? Eris?!" Discord's ears twitched at the sound of this name, but said nothing. "By the time she arrives here, she'll wish she never has! She started me off with power, but I've grown stronger since then, and because of that, that so-called 'Goddess of Chaos' will be kneeling before me!"

Suddenly, a disembodied voice came from the skies, sending chills through everypony in the immediate area – even Blackheart. "Really Blackheart; will I?" The feminine voice asked as the thick clouds above grew blood red.

Blackheart instantly showed off a side the others never knew he had, "E-Eris! My lord! I -"

The voice identified as Eris's cut him off and yelled, blowing strong winds across the empire. "Fool! I put my trust in you to take over Equestria by the time I've arrived and you defile my name and attempt to dethrone me when I arrive?! Have you even taken control of any other area here?!"

"I've taken over Canterlot, m-my lord…" The black-coated alicorn dropped onto one of his knees and stared at the ground, trying his best to ignore the embarrassment he felt toward the ponies he threatened to destroy.

Twilight stared intently at the sky, trying to figure out who exactly this 'Eris' person was. "Girls… Watch your backs, we don't know what we're up against…"

Rarity agreed with her and took a few steps back, a fearful expression planted on her face, "I was just starting to say that…" As the white unicorn said this, Pinkie Pie latched herself on to Applejack and wrapped her forelegs around the orange pony's neck, whining in fear.

Still looking up into the clouds, Twilight spotted a form, much like Discord's but curvier; more… Feminine. With the left wing of a black dragon and the right of a white angel, the draconequus gently landed on the concrete with a soft tap, blowing dust in the area without a care.

Twilight blocked her eyes from the dust and tried her best to get a good look at what Eris looked like, squinting hard as she slowly started to make out the body parts of the Goddess of Chaos. Her feet were tiger paws, and striped fur trailed up from her legs and covered her torso, a white blot covering her belly. She had the head of a horse, like Discord, and her hair was as dark as night, pinned up in a ponytail by two sharp bones. Her left arm was covered in dark black fur of a wolf and her right, the soft white furs of a bunny. On the end of her left arm was the claw of a falcon, unlike her right arm, which had the paw of a white lion.

Eris's tail started off from the base as bushy and wild like a fox's, but near the end, the light red furs made their way to scales of the same color, and a scorpion's stinger laid at the end of it. She stared into Blackheart's eyes with her own, which peered deep within his mind, for she had emerald green eyes that sparkled in the light, her pupils being slits at the moment. Splitting her bang into three, she had two horns, both the horns of a minotaur; the right white and the left black. Lastly, she had the beauty of a Goddess, despite her random body parts, and even Applejack who literally didn't care about looks _at all,_ had to agree with this.

After the Goddess of Chaos landed on the concrete, silence filled the empire. Nothing moved. Nopony made a sound. Heck, it even sounded like the wind stopped for her. Eris took one more step to the dark alicorn and spoke to him with a smirk, "What a shame… It'd be a joy to have you as a servant under my rule… But who knows; you might get arrogant and speak of overthrowing me again…"

Blackheart said nothing, being put in the most vulnerable state he'd ever been in; embarrassed in front of his enemies. Even he knew his time was up, though…

"Stand, pony," she said, playing with her hair slightly as she watched the pony fearfully do as told. Her sick smirk stayed on her face as she let her paw drop from her hair and to her side. The alicorn stood up straight, but dared not to stare Eris in the eyes, for he knew she would definitely destroy him for such disrespect. Suddenly, with a quick movement, the draconequus swiped her paw across the alicorn's chest, taking hold of his pendant and ripping it from his necklace.

Instantly, a wave of black aura came from Blackheart's body as his coat suddenly changed to a dark purple color and he grew smaller. The alicorn dropped onto the ground and laid completely limp; his source of power being taken away from him. Gasps came from the ponies watching the scene as Eris looked down at the onyx heart and smirked, crushing it easily within her paw. The mineral shattered and dropped onto the ground as she opened her paw, satisfied with the outcome of her taking Blackheart's power. She looked up to the other ponies and dropped the remnants of the onyx heart and took a step forward them. Now, it was Equestria's turn to be crushed…

* * *

Rainbow Dash had just finished performing a second Sonic Rainboom as she neared Canterlot, her wings stretching out wide so she could fly as fast as she could. She left the Crystal Empire to get Princess Celestia; she figured somehow if the she could team up with Luna, they could defeat Blackheart, but what she didn't know was that a new threat had come to life. Her heart dropped as she looked back and remembered how she left her friends there… It made it seem like she was abandoning them. She was the Element of Loyalty; she couldn't do that!

Shaking that thought out of her head, Dash had landed roughly in the worn courtyard of the Canterlot Castle, bursting into a full-on gallop when she landed. As her hooves tapped loudly and echoed through the town, the light blue pegasus bit her lip, hoping that she would make it back to the Crystal Empire in time. Bursting into the doors of the castle, she saw Princess Celestia limping across the lobby, both Spike and Dawn following her. With wide, hope-filled eyes, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and flew over to her, "Princess Celestia!"

The tall white alicorn stopped in her tracks, looked over to the blue pegasus and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?" Dawn and Spike stopped right behind her and looked to Rainbow Dash innocently, knowing nothing of the situation back at the Crystal Empire.

Panting, the younger mare landed once more and looked Celestia deep in her magenta eyes, "We need you at the Crystal Empire! I came here to get you! Blackheart's kicking our butts and you're the only pony I can think of who can help us right now!"

Celestia narrowed her eyebrows and turned her whole body toward Rainbow, speaking with no hesitance, "Rainbow Dash, return to the empire immediately. Your friends need your help."

What was she talking about? She wasn't going to help them? Rainbow Dash's heart dropped as she spoke within an uncharacteristically whiny tone, "B-But, Princess-"

"I need you to let the others know I'll be arriving soon."

A smirk crawled upon Rainbow's face as she heard that one of the strongest ponies she knew was coming help them save Equestria. The pegasus flapped her wings and flew into the air, saluting quickly to the alicorn before dashing off, "You got it, princess!"

As Dash burst through the door with a rainbow following right behind her, Celestia turned around and sighed as she looked to the filly and baby dragon in front of her. "Dawn, can you please help Spike prepare some food for when we arrive to assist your brother and the others?"

Instantly, Spike burst into a fearful fit, "Wait, what?! We're going _to _the battle?! I- I can't do that! Only a crazy pony would do such a thing!"

His babbling stopped when Celestia cut him off with her own sentence of wisdom, "Only brave ponies _and _dragons do such things, Spike…" She let a smirk crawl on her face as she looked into the baby dragon's eyes, watching them fill up with hope. Then looking to Dawn, she asked politely, "Dawn, will you, sweetheart?"

"Yes, ma'am," the filly enthusiastically shouted, a spark of hope and absolute adorableness twinkling in her eyes. The young white unicorn turned around and grabbed spike by his 'ear' with her mouth, dragging him into the royal kitchen, "C'mon, Spike; we've got work to do!"

Giggling slightly, Celestia shook her head and whispered to herself, "That Dawn reminds me of myself when I was just a filly; the liveliest little thing in Equestria…" The princess then snapped out of her little daydream and made her way up the stairs; she had to ready herself for battle.

* * *

**Yeah, I did it – I added a new character! Unfortunately, she had to be a baddie. :c Well anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and PLEASE review; I need to know how I did on this one, it's really big to me. As always, I hope you tune in again for another chapter of A Change of Heart! Until next time, my fellow bronies and pegasisters! – FrozenAgent47.**


	10. The Battle Begins

**Hey guys! I heard from a few of my fans that they enjoyed how I portrayed Eris in the last chapter, so I'm positive you guys are going to ****_love _****her in this one. Sure, she may be an antagonist, but Discord's shown us all that we can love a baddie, right? Anywho, I hope you enjoy this shocking chapter! – FrozenAgent47.**

* * *

The wind blew softly through the absolutely still Crystal Empire. Everypony in the town square froze in the absence of Eris, who had just taken down Blackheart with ease when the Elements of Harmony barely even scratched him. The female draconequus was giggling evilly until looked up to the ponies in front of her, disgust riddling her face within an instant; it wasn't hard to realize that she didn't like them.

Her emerald green eyes scanned the group in front of her with hatred burning within them. Suddenly, her eyes went wide as she opened her mouth and let out a long, affectionate, "Awwwww!"

With confused expressions, the ponies titled their heads and raised an eyebrow toward the draconequus. Eris suddenly disappeared with a bright flash, leaving the ponies more scared than confused. She then reappeared in front of Discord and instantly began pinching his cheek, a large smile stretching across her face, "Discord! It's been so long!" The Goddess of Chaos pulled her paw from his cheek and rubbed gently down on his goatee, "Oh! You've even grown a little beard now!"

Annoyed, Discord slapped Eris's hand away from his face and mumbled as he looked away from her, "Stop."

Eris recoiled in surprise at the draconequus's action toward her, letting her jaw drop overdramatically, "Oh my! The younger brother's finally done being a pushover! After many millennia, he's finally grown tough!"

The remaining Elements of Harmony stared at the two with wide eyes as large as basketballs; Discord was Eris's younger brother?! Sure, they may have been a part of the same race, but chances of them being siblings weren't that high. Well, in the calculative mind of Twilight's – they weren't.

Then, she looked back to the ponies behind her half-way before she looked back to her brother and asked dully, "Or am I just embarrassing you in front of your friends?" Before Discord could reply, she waved her claw toward them with force.

A wave of rough winds blew at the four ponies and threw them off of their hooves violently. Their yells of pain could be heard over the wind as they tumbled across the concrete. Discord quickly took a step back and swung his claw through the air, toward Eris's head; he may have been reformed and 'kind', but he wasn't going to let her hurt his friends, and that was for sure!

Eris didn't even look back to her brother as she ducked under his claw, efficiently dodging his attack. With a silent snarl of anger, she kicked on the ground and slid away from him. As she recovered from her evade, she stood up and let her nails emerge from her paws and stood in a defensive position. Letting out the roar of a tiger, her eyes filled with a lava red – she was angry. "Okay, brother, you want to play like that?! Let's go!" She hissed loudly and bared her teeth, showing off what she liked to call her 'tiger' side.

Discord sighed and shook his head, "No, Eris… I can't fight you." He shrugged and spoke reasonably of the situation, "Sure, I'm a spirit of chaos; I have no principals… But you're my sister; and I refuse to fight you. Being reformed _does_ take its toll on your standards of violence."

"And now I understand why father never allowed you take the throne!" Eris said, letting her guard drop as she smirked; this was a low blow to Discord. Ever since he was young, he wanted to be the God of Chaos; but his father denied him that honor for one reason: he was too kind. How did he get so chaotic when he came to Equestria? Well, there's a story behind that…

Young Discord was a good little draconequus at heart, but because of this, he was disowned by his family of chaos and denied his dream. With nothing left at home, he left the Land of Chaos and travelled into lands unknown, trying to find a friend to count on. Since he was a draconequus, though, everypony around didn't want to be his friend; they thought he was bad – that he was a being of chaos. With no friends in sight, his heart began to grow cold, and he truly became chaotic by the time he made it to a place where somepony accepted him; Equestria. His chances of having a friend then were truly gone.

Reliving all of these years within seconds, Discord's eyes filled with a mild rage as he looked to his older sister, who did nothing in the past to prove she was a good sister. The thing was; she wasn't. The male draconequus mumbled under his breath but loudly enough to where Eris could hear him, "It's better off being a good person than a bad one."

Eris placed her claw on her hip and chuckled loudly, "Why?! So you can have the magic of friendship on your side?!" She burst into a full-on laughing fit, clutching her stomach with her paw tightly. Eris never had friends, and she liked it that way.

Saying nothing, Discord launched himself toward his sister and stuck his arms out wide; he was going for a rough attack. As he flew toward Eris with mind-blowing speeds, a magical dark red aura engulfed his form, showing his anger he was holding in for so many centuries. The usually goofy and playful draconequus was brought into a state he'd never been in; furious.

Eris instantly stopped laughing as she saw her brother dashing to her with intentions of harming her. Her wide-open mouth became a smirk as she let go of her stomach and pulled her paw up above her head.

Just being able to stand, Twilight watched the fight unfold in front of her with wide eyes; it was like nothing she had ever seen! Drawing herself away from the battle that wasn't her own, the purple alicorn looked behind her and saw the others, who were perfectly fine. Sighing with relief, the princess looked to her right and saw a limp form that she knew quite well. She whispered the name, "Blackheart…"

Sparks flew into the air as the siblings' claws scraped against each others. Backing away from her brother, Eris growled loudly and set her paw and claw aflame with a deep red magical aura. She flew into the air and looked down to Discord, burning bright with flames of chaos.

Discord followed right after her and slashed his claw through the air. Quickly, the Goddess of Chaos raised her right arm and caught his attack with her paw, showing no signs of strain as she blocked his attack. Still infuriated, the younger draconequus threw his paw toward Eris's face. Instantly seeing his next attack, she caught his claw and locked her fingers with his talons. "Oh brother, do you really think you can defeat me?"

Looking into his sister's eyes, Discord said nothing at all, steam periodically making its way out of his nostrils. He began to remember when he used to be like this; evil and chaotic – thinking that no one could defeat him. Loosening his grip on his sister's paw and claw, he spoke silently, "Eris… You don't have to do this." There was attempt at reforming his sister.

"I know," she said calmly, a warm smile placed on her face. A wave of joy passed through her brother as he heard this; she was actually considering being reformed! But, his hopes were crushed as her smile slipped into a mischievous smirk and she finished the sentence, "But I _want _to." With that, she raised her leg with tremendous force and let out a yell of exertion. Not knowing what was happening, Discord's eyes went wide in pain as Eris's foot slammed hard into his stomach. Taking this opportunity to start a combination of attacks, she pushed him back with her foot and chuckled slightly in amusement as she ducked low and swung her paw upward, to Discord's vulnerable chest.

In the background of the fight, Twilight stood over the unconscious Blackheart, using her magic to bring him back to the world of the living. It wasn't long until the dark purple stallion began to stir awake, mumbling some gibberish as his light blue eyes began to slowly open. The first words he said that started to make sense were, "Wh-Where am I? What happened?"

Twilight opened her mouth to say something as she backed away from him slowly, but he sat up quickly with a trace of fear spread across his face. "Eris!" Blackheart looked around frantically and began to stumble on the concrete, "Where is she?!" His question was answered by an explosion that echoed from above. Discord was painfully twisting into the air, his sister's attack taking a large toll on his body.

The stallion opened his mouth to scream with fear, but Twilight rushed over to him and pressed her hoof on his mouth, muffling his fearful cry. "Shh!" Then, an idea sparked in her mind. As a random lightbulb popped above her head and shined brightly, she looked back and gestured to the other three ponies to follow her. As they snuck around the battle and to their friend, Twilight whispered to Blackheart, who was almost a laughing stock for how weak he was now. "We have to get away from here; it's not safe… Can you trust me?" Asking this question, Twilight told herself on the inside, "_I should be saying, 'Can I trust you?'"_

Blackheart nodded to her and his mouth was released from her hoof as a reward. He stood onto his hooves and followed behind Twilight, who left the town square with ease. The ground shook and explosions rang throughout the air as the five left the siblings to fight. Following Twilight, Blackheart and the other three Elements of Harmony found themselves taking temporary shelter in a nearly collapsed home.

"Okay, here's the deal," Twilight said as she closed the door with her magic, looking to Blackheart afterward. The other Elements of Harmony looked to him with disproving faces, excluding Pinkie Pie, who was searching through the house for Celestia-knows-what. Continuing with her sentence, the purple alicorn took a step toward the small stallion and pressed a forceful hoof against his chest, "I want to know what happened back there and you're going to tell me." Her eyes were filled with an emotion that Blackheart knew not to defy.

He gulped and looked to the others before starting of his story of why his defeat against Eris was so quick. "Look, my pendant…" The stallion paused, giving himself time to actually map out how he was going to tell the princess. But, Twilight was focused on something else; his voice. It was much lighter than before. Much… Weaker. "It was what made me evil… Like the Alicorn Amulet from my time - but you've probably never heard of it."

"Oh we've heard of it, alright…" Twilight mumbled with a smirk, remembering when Trixie had come to Ponyville and – wait! She had no time to be going through memory lane! Equestria was in peril! Shaking her head and getting back in the game, she began listening in on Blackheart's story.

"It all started when I was a colt; when Discord first came to Equestria. My family abandoned me when I was a foal because my coat was darker than everypony else's. Alicorns were picky about their heirs back then… Because of this, I had no place to go until he came along and offered me power; something I could use to survive. I accepted, and with that, he gave me the nickname of 'Blackheart'; it matched my story… I went with it from then on. He gave me this pendant one day and said it was from a being of chaos named Sombra..."

Twilight ears perked at the sound of Sombra's name; had Discord known everypony evil? Still quiet, she tuned in once more on the stallion's story. "It consumed evil, and with that, it consumed power. Years had passed after Discord had left to Canterlot, and when I waited for him to come back; he never did. And then I started hearing word on another evil pony's reign; Nightmare Moon… She was soon defeated, and when she was, her evil came to my pendant. With the newly-found power I had obtained, I went and attacked Equestria myself, and from then on… I'm sure you can fill in the rest."

"Wait, but that doesn't explain how Eris beat 'ya so fast," Applejack said as she stepped forward to the stallion.

Changing his glance to the orange pony, he nodded his head, "Yes, of course. The pendant I was given did not only give me power; it was my source of power. Without it, every ounce of power I've received since I first got it doesn't exist."

"Never mind the fact that he was defeated; we still have to defeat Eris, and we're going to need a plan." Twilight said, stomping a hoof on the floor beneath her gallantly.

Turning around and looking outside one of the shattered windows of the house, Blackheart disagreed with Twilight's statement, "There is no defeating Eris."

Shock trailed across Twilight's face as she gasped and spoke, "What?! Why would you say that?!"

He looked back to her half-way and spoke lowly, "Because I know it's true… I'm sure you can't defeat the Goddess of Chaos. She's broken spells of the 'strongest pony alive', remember?" Blackheart was referring to when he was put to sleep by Celestia and Eris woke him up.

Saying nothing else to the pessimistic alicorn, Twilight angrily spoke through gritted teeth, "Let's go girls…" The others followed soundlessly behind her as she stepped out of the house, eyeing Blackheart all the way. Pinkie Pie even stuck her tongue out at him as she bounced past.

They left the house and stared into the sky, where Discord and Eris were sharing massive blows to each other. Sparks of magic flew high into the air and the sounds of their magical attacks crashing against each other were like earsplitting explosions. "Okay, here's what we're going to do…" Twilight yelled over the battlefield right in front of them. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity huddled around the purple alicorn and concentrated on listening to what she said. "Rarity, Applejack; I want you two to go to the Canterlot Castle and get Fluttershy and Princess Luna. Tell them we're evacuating the city."

"What? Evacuating the city? What are you trying to say, darling, we're giving up?" Rarity asked this with concern in her tone, her eyes wide with surprise at Twilight's reaction to the situation. Applejack and Pinkie Pie shared the same expression.

"No, we have to get every civilian out of the city. Eris isn't going to stop here; she's going to destroy _everything!_ We have to keep everypony safe, remember?"

Applejack then stepped beside Rarity, asking Twilight with deep worry in her tone; it even sparkled in her eyes. "I understand Sugar Cube, but 'ya don't think we're gonna leave 'ya here, do 'ya?"

Twilight shook her head and looked to the orange earth pony with sadness, "_Everypony _has to be safe, Applejack."

"But you're somepony, Twilight!" Pinkie said as she bounced beside her, confusion riddling her face.

"I know-"

"So if you're somepony and you're not safe, everypony isn't safe. And if everypony isn't safe, it means somepony isn't safe. So if somepony isn't safe, you'd be angry because everypony wouldn't be safe. Then you'd be angry at yourself and that would be really, really bad because -"

Rarity cut in and placed a hoof on Pinkie Pie's mouth, speaking for the pink earth pony, "We can't simply leave you behind, dear! It's been years since we've first met and not for one day we've been split apart from saving Equestria!"

"Rarity, you don't understand… If you stay here -"

Once more, Twilight's sentence was thrown off by the sound of one of her friends' voice. Applejack shook her head and spoke matter-of-factly, "There's no way 'yer splittin' us apart, Twilight! We're stickin' next you like a fly on a caramel apple!"

Letting go of Pinkie, Rarity had pitched in on getting the orange pony's point across to Twilight. "Like sparkles on a diamond!"

Pinkie Pie burst into the air with a confetti explosion behind her, screaming to the top of her lungs, "LIKE FUN ON A PARTY!"

The other three covered their ears and screamed the yelling pony's name in unison. "PINKIE!"

Dropping gently on the ground, she rubbed the back of her head and apologetically giggled, "Oh. Sorry."

With a smile, Twilight shook her head and began to start on the next plan she had come up with. "Okay, back to business… We're evacuating every civilian out of the city. If anypony's hurt, bring them to the Crystal Castle to Fluttershy. Pinkie Pie, you take care of the northern half of the empire. Rarity, you take the east; Applejack, west. I'm going to look for my brother and Nightfall and tell them what's going on. Got it?"

"You bet'cha!" Applejack said as she galloped off in the streets, determination sparkling in her green eyes.

Rarity also galloped away; giving off her best 'battle cry' she could think of. "Huzzah!"

Twilight blinked a few times and asked herself inwardly, "_Did she really just say that?" _

"Okie dokie lokie!" Pinkie yelled loudly as she happily bounced away from the purple alicorn.

Now regaining her own thoughts alone, she looked into the sky above the town square and saw Discord fighting his sister with the best of his ability. She knew she had to move fast; Discord wouldn't beat Eris alone and the longer it took her to get to his aid, the more he would be hurt. Galloping to the last place she could remember seeing her brother and Nightfall, Twilight whispered to herself. "Hang in there Discord, we're coming…"

* * *

Discord was in fact hanging – on a magical thread that is. Panting loudly, the draconequus backed away from his sister, trying his best not to show that he could pass out at any minute. His rage only got him so far as to breaking one of Eris's nails, and that made her absolutely furious. Still with his arms high in a defensive position, he asked his sister, who was staring intently at her broken nail on her paw. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" A smirk crossed his face as he said this, watching her anger burn up in her eyes.

She gritted her teeth and looked into her younger brother's eyes as she spoke her words of venom, "This was actually starting to get fun… But now, I'll have to get serious." With no hesitation, Eris flapped her wings with devastating force and propelled herself toward Discord like a bullet. With her claw in front of her ready to tear anything into shreds, she narrowed her eyes and licked her lips, expecting to see blood within the next few seconds.

Suddenly, she halted and watched a blur of colors zip right past her face; if she would've kept going, she would've been thrown to the ground by this random source of energy. With a gasp, she backed away from Discord and the colors. She looked to her brother and asked, "What's this; another one of your tricks?"

Discord dropped onto the ground and shook his head, calmly replying to her question, "No… Just one of my friends." He smirked as he watched Rainbow Dash come to his aid.

The light blue pegasus stopped with her back to Eris and let her mane flow freely in the wind as she entered the fight. "I guess Blackheart left you alone here to fight us…" She turned around with a battle-ready grin, her eyes sparkling with 'fight' in them, "Poor you."

Eris landed gently on the concrete and chuckled softly, "For your information; I defeated Blackheart within seconds. And if anyone left someone alone; it'd be you leaving your friends. Also, I don't think I'm the 'poor' one here; I'm going to win this battle."

Rainbow Dash ignored her sentence about abandonment; she left to get help! If it weren't supposed to be a surprise attack, the pegasus would prove her wrong then and there. She wanted to ask how she knew of that incident, though. Eris wasn't even there yet! "You're going to win this battle, huh? You must have had a good daydream sister, because all I see is Equestria for the win here!"

"If that's the case, Rainbow Dash, you're blind." The Goddess of Chaos said with venom in her tone, stepping forth with a silent snarl.

Rainbow blinked and tilted her head as she landed on the ground, raising one of her eyebrows, "How do you know my name?"

"Never mind that, filly. Let's get this over with; I've a world to destroy." Eris raised her arms and let out a small growl, baring her teeth as she did so.

"Now you're talkin'!" The pegasus got low and prepared herself for the battle of her life, spreading her wings and giving off a half-smirk that that showed her true determination to fight for her world.

It was silent before either one of them moved a muscle. The wind seemed to stop and the red clouds above began to swirl around the town square. Eris was doing something tricky, and Rainbow Dash knew it…

Discord sat down in the back of town square and took a hold of his left side, which was bruised and battered from the fight. He was in no state to fight, but he knew if Rainbow Dash needed his help; he'd take the battle from then on.

Suddenly, the ground shook violently as an earsplitting explosion echoed through Northern Equestria. Rainbow Dash let out a hearty battle cry as she performed a Sonic Rainboom, her hooves in front of her ready to pound Eris to a pulp. A wave of colors flew across the skies above as the pegasus neared the draconequus with amazing speeds.

Before the Goddess of Chaos was able to evade the attack, she felt a pressure pushing in on her chest. With wide eyes, she flew back in pain, completely new to this feeling; she'd never been successfully attacked before! Rainbow Dash closed her eyes as she slammed into her enemy, a thick rainbow following right behind her. Knowing that she hit Eris, the pegasus took this opportunity to do something that she practiced for a long time to do; just in case for a situation like this one.

Roughly moving faster than the speed of sound, Rainbow abruptly stopped and held her breath, thinking to herself. "_Alright; I've trained for this… 'Gotta keep myself fast and on my hooves… Let's do this."_ As she watched Eris fly away from her, she aimed a hoof at the Goddess of Chaos and yelled after her. "Y'know, you happen to be 'kinda lucky right now; you're the first person to witness my new combo!" Preparing to dash, she let her catchphrase come naturally with her large grin, "Get ready to taste the Painbow!"


	11. A Furious Goddess

**Hey guys! So, lately I've been a bit absent because of some tiring (but worth it) high school program I'm required to attend to be ready for it. Getting to the good stuff, though; I hope you enjoy this chapter and I sincerely apologize if this one seems a bit 'squeezed' of its potential. I'm SOOOOO tired. ;~; Enjoy and review guys.**

* * *

Twilight's hooves clicked loudly on the concrete beneath her as she galloped through the streets of the burning empire. It hadn't been that long since her and the others split up, so she was sure that they still had time to evacuate everypony out of the Crystal Empire.

Concentrating on one thing, though, the purple alicorn rushed down the road as she neared a dark purple form that seemed familiar to her eyes. Beginning to slow down, she tilted her head and whispered to herself, "Nightfall?" It wasn't long until she slowed into a trot and called his name again to gain his attention, "Nightfall!" When he looked to her, she smiled brightly as she neared him, a warm joy building inside of her.

He smiled just as bright as she did as he turned toward her, calling back to her, "Twilight!" Before he could say anything else, Twilight threw herself into his chest and wrapped her forelegs around his neck happily.

She pulled him into a tight embrace and closed her eyes. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I was just escorting all the civilians out of the town, not fighting an ancient evil even the Elements of Harmony couldn't defeat; of course I'm okay." Nightfall hugged her back for a second until he recalled what Shining Armor had told him. Remembering the distinct glare he received from the white unicorn, he gently pushed away from Twilight, who instantly looked to him with a quizzical expression. "I, uh… Your brother…" That's all he needed to say.

Twilight pulled away and looked around frantically, her cheeks growing a hot red as she looked for her brother. "Wh-Where is he?!"

Nightfall laughed slightly and shook his head, "He's not here, but we might want to be careful, still…"

"But… Where is he?"

"While we were finding stallions who could fight against Blackheart, he realized that evacuating the town would be a much more logical thing to do, so he told his royal guard members to take everypony and escort them to the next town. Then, we were looking for you and your friends to get _you_ to safety as well; we found everypony _but_ you until now. And…"

"And?" Twilight parroted him, looking him deep in the eyes so she could figure out what he wanted to say.

"They said something about this person named Eris and how strong she was. Shining Armor didn't hesitate to head to the town square fight her. I still wanna know, though, who is she?"

Twilight paid no attention to the last question he asked; her brother was going to fight the most dangerous threat Equestria has ever faced! On top of that, he had no idea what he was up against! She needed to help him, and as always, she had a plan to do just that.

Suddenly an explosion shook the ground, causing both Nightfall and Twilight to look around fearfully. They looked above, to the source of the winds that blew roughly against their coats. When they looked to the sky, they spotted something that gave Twilight a stronger sense of hope. Right below the blood red clouds was a large wave of rainbow-based colors that stretched in every direction. "Rainbow Dash," Twilight had whispered; this ultimately changed everything about their situation. If Rainbow Dash was there, Shining Armor would have some assistance with Eris until her and the others mind jumped from one plan to another until she came to the most logical conclusion she could think of. "We have no time to waste; I'll tell you who Eris is later. We have to gather everypony and head to the town square now!"

Looking away from the sky and to the purple alicorn, Nightfall nodded and spoke, "Right, your friends should be at the Crystal Castle by now."

"Good." She steadied her hooves and prepared a magical spell, causing her horn to become engulfed by a sparkly, light pink aura. "Do you know how to use the Teleportation Spell?"

Nightfall shook his head. "No, my mother never allowed me to take magic classes; she thought I'd get hurt."

"Well, get close – this is going to be one quick ride!" Twilight exclaimed, her eyes filling with vigor as she looked forward. She began powering the spell when he tapped her back gently, and soon, they were quickly engulfed with a beam of light.

* * *

"Thank you for your hospitality, Fluttershy," Luna happily said as she stretched her wings, feeling much better than before. The bandages wrapped around her chest and back extended as she got back into the kink of things.

Fluttershy smiled warmly and acknowledged the princess's graciousness. "Oh, you're welcome princess; it's no problem at all."

Smiling brightly, the dark purple alicorn nodded and looked around the empty lobby, "Now that I'm ready to battle again, we must find your friends."

The pegasus's eyes went wide in surprise. It hadn't even been 5 minutes after she was being treated yet Luna wanted to go and battle? Of course, Fluttershy couldn't have her getting hurt again, so she decided to let her know the risks of fighting so soon. "Well, actually, I don't think you're ready to –"

Not hearing the yellow pegasus's voice, Luna took a step forward and continued on with her words of inspiration. "We must go forth and defeat these evils that threaten our homelands!"

Fluttershy slowly stepped beside the princess and tried to add in, "But princess, you can't -"

"Let's find your friends and take back what's rightfully ours!"

"No, princess, you shouldn't -"

"Come Fluttershy!" Luna exclaimed as she turned around to the pegasus with a large smile, "Let us find your friends and save Equestria!" Fluttershy said nothing as she looked to the ground and shook her head. Sighing softly, she began stepping toward the princess slowly.

"What is wrong? Is it something I said?" The princess's smile added as she saw Fluttershy's downtrodden expression.

Quickly, she looked up and shook her head with more aggressiveness, "Oh, no! I just -"

Once more, Fluttershy's sentence was cut off, but not by Luna this time. A bright flash of light shined through the lobby, followed by a loud 'bang'. Instantly, the pegasus zipped from sight and hid behind a column in the castle as she squealed with fear.

Luna stepped into a defensive stance and aimed her horn at the source of light and yelled, her expression instantly showing that she was serious, "Who goes there?!" Soon, her eyes lit up with happiness as the familiar tone rang in her ears.

Twilight stepped from the dimming light with a smile stretched across her face, "Luna!" The young princess galloped quickly over to the dark purple alicorn and hugged her. After pulling away from the embrace, she let her facial expression change from ecstatic to absolutely confused as she spotted nopony else in the lobby. "Wait… Where's everypony else?"

Pointing back to the line of columns by the staircase, Princess Luna answered her question, "I believe Fluttershy was startled by your entrance, so she fled behind one of those columns there."

As if on cue, the small pegasus peeked out of her hiding spot and waved slowly. Barely being heard, Fluttershy quietly whispered, trembling in the aftermath of fear. "H-Hi Twilight…"

Waving wordlessly to her, Twilight turned her attention to Luna, who started to speak again. "Unfortunately, I have no idea where your friends are. In fact, I was preparing to search for them with Fluttershy before you entered."

"They're not… Here?" Twilight asked disappointedly. She swear she could feel her heart drop lower than it should have. If they weren't there, then her plan would be –

"Twilight!" Familiar voices called in unison joyfully as the doors slammed open, sending Fluttershy right back into her hiding place. Twilight turned around with wide eyes as her mind filled with hope once more. Maybe her plan _would_ work out…

Pinkie Pie bounced from the door and began singing her words, "Rainbow Dash is here, Rainbow Dash is here! Now we can kick that meanie Eris's rear!" She kept repeating this as she made her way in circles around the lobby.

Applejack eyed the pink earth pony and mouthed her words, "What the hoof?" She realized that Pinkie wasn't going to stop anytime soon, so she turned to twilight and exclaimed with joy, "Twilight! I'm glad 'yer okay!" The earth pony trotted in front of her and smiled brightly.

"You too Applejack, but now isn't the time for greetings; Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash are going to fight Eris." Twilight went straight to business as the final Element of Harmony entered the castle silently.

"I think you know that we figured the Rainbow Dash part already…" Rarity gestured toward Pinkie Pie, who was still bouncing around the room.

With a quick, silent giggle, Twilight had called out to everypony in the castle, her voice bouncing off of the crystal walls in the hollow lobby. "Everypony get close! I've got something to say!" When they all gathered near her, she decided to do a roll call first. "Just to make sure everypony is here, I'll call names. Applejack!"

The orange pony raised her hair with her hoof and let out her cry of enthusiasm, "Yee-haw!"

"Rarity!"

The white unicorn was fanning her face with a fan she had built from some paper she found in the lobby. She was hot, and that would make her sweat, and sweat would make her make-up look _dreadful_. Rarity shivered at the thought, but soon snapped out of her nightmare as her name got called. "Present," she simply answered.

"Pinkie -"

An explosion cut Twilight's sentence off, followed by a wave of confetti and a flying Pinkie Pie. Screaming over the echoing 'BOOM', the pink earth pony soared over her friends, "I'M HERE!"

Twilight winced at the sudden 'thud' that silenced the pink pony. With empathetically painful eyes, the purple alicorn tilted her head and watched Pinkie slide down the wall slowly, prolonging her long, low, "Owwww."

"Um… Are you okay?"

Still sliding down the wall, the put up her hoof and waved it enthusiastically as she exclaimed into the wall, "Yeah!"

She blinked a few times before continuing on with her roll-call. Even after knowing that pony for years Twilight was still amazed at how she functioned. It wasn't even logical! The young princess and shook her head and giggled slightly, moving onto the next Element of Harmony, "Fluttershy."

"I-I'm here," the yellow pegasus peeked from behind one of the columns and gently waved her hoof.

Not wondering why she never came to join the group, Twilight turned around and looked directly to the moon princess. "Princess Luna."

Luna nodded and raised a hoof, "Here."

"And," she held the word as she turned around again and faced the dark purple colt. "Nightfall." He said nothing as she waved a hoof toward her.

After doing the roll-call, Twilight began on her plan, looking to each of her friends with determined expression that proved that she was doing the 'back-and-forth' fighting. This was going to be the last time they came back here to regroup. "Okay, so Rainbow Dash, Discord, and my brother are at the town square fighting Eris. We're not going to leave them there to fight alone, now are we?"

Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared behind Twilight and exclaimed, "Of course we're not! They're our friends! We always help friends!"

Twilight turned and looked to pink earth pony with a dull expression. "It was a rhetorical question, Pinkie."

She giggled and waved a hoof to the purple alicorn, "I know!" She paused and put a hoof on her chin as she thought deeply, "Wait… Isn't that the question that's supposed to be funny?"

Rolling her eyes, Twilight shook her head and looked back to the others, "Anyway; here's the plan…"

* * *

"_Here goes the final blow_!" Rainbow Dash enthusiastically yelled in her mind as she soared across the sky. Pulling her right foreleg back, she gritted her teeth tightly as she neared Eris, who was still stunned from the previous attacks. Dash knew that this was her last chance to defeat the Goddess of Chaos; her past hundred-something attacks wore her out – excluding the fact that she flew from Canterlot to the Crystal Empire _twice. _

Eris had come to an abrupt stop as she felt something spark inside of her; something a little more than her usual rage. As she stopped and stared to the light blue pegasus, she thought of everything that had happened ever since she had arrived to Equestria. First, Blackheart failed her; then, her brother betrayed their lineage (not that she cared); and now, she was being injured by some weak little pegasus! It was ridiculous! She was the Goddess of Chaos and soon-to-be ruler of Equestria; she had no reason to be tossed around by _anything!_ Knowing that nothing was going her way, Eris felt angry. No, enraged! No, even worse, infuriated!

Her eyes set aflame as she growled and bared her teeth. Magical flames poured from her eyes as she stretched her arms far apart and powered them with a dark magic. The fury within her wasn't going to allow her to play around anymore. It was time to get serious. Eris yelled to Rainbow, who was completely oblivious to her new state of being. "Now it's time you pay, filly!"

Ignoring Eris's words, the pegasus let out a hearty battle cry and threw her hoof at the draconequus's face.

Moving at the speed of light – if not faster – Eris swiftly shifted to the left and dodged Rainbow's attack with ease. As she watched the pegasus launch past her with wide eyes full of surprise, the Goddess of Chaos reached forward and grabbed her by her tail, and spoke through gritted fangs, "Got'cha 'ya little brat!"

All Rainbow could do was scream as the draconequus spun in a circle and tossed her into the nearby ruins of a building. Smoke and debris scattered across the area as the pegasus violently slammed into the bricks. As the loud '**BOOM**' rang through the town square, Discord stood instantly and balled his claw and paw. "Rainbow Dash!" He gritted his teeth and looked to Eris as he stretched his wings out to fly.

Instantly, the older draconequus turned from the cloud of smoke and to her brother, who was beginning to fly toward her. With a smirk, she aimed her claw at him and blasted a wave of magical energy at him, "Sorry, little bro, you're not joining in this time!" Before Discord could do anything about the magic she shot at him, he felt something wrap around him. Something… strong.

Eris closed her claw and let her dark red magic close in on her brother, locking him in a prison cube. She took the cube with her magical grasp and placed him in the air, right below the clouds. Discord beat on the magic field, but all his attempts did spark the cube and made it smaller. It didn't take long for him to realize this trick, so he pulled his arms back and stared at Eris with eyes of pure anger. He barked at her, "You won't get away with this!"

She laughed heartily before a too-familiar voice interrupted her. "Hey, you let him go!" Rainbow Dash demanded as she slowly flew out of the wave of smoke and pointed a hoof at the female draconequus. Scratches and bruises covered the pegasus's body, but she ignored the stinging pain that came from her wounds; she had to save Equestria!

Eris's scoffed as she looked to Dash once more, "Or what; you'll have to defeat me?"

Rainbow smirked and shrugged as she replied to the question, "Well, I was gonna do that either way, but if you want me to beat you down first; I can do that, too."

The Goddess of Chaos snarled, the pegasus's reply actually a good comeback. She said nothing as she leaned forward and threw her wings back. The devastating force of her wings moving at the speed they were launched her toward her smaller adversary. Eris made it in her range before she was even able to move a muscle.

With wide eyes, Rainbow looked up to Eris and gasped in amazement at how fast she just moved. The draconequus smirked and placed her paw on Dash's chest gently. Once more, Eris got to make her move before Rainbow Dash could move a muscle. "Ta-taa," she whispered as she powered a magical blast in her paw, waving goodbye with her claw. Suddenly, a ray of light shined on Rainbow's light blue coat as Eris shot the blast of energy directly into her.

Rainbow Dash twirled painfully to the ground after she took the high-powered attack to the chest, knocking debris and smoke into the air once again.

Still in his prison, Discord leaned against one of the walls and yelled, "No!"

Eris floated above the pegasus and waited silently for her annoying return and catchphrase, but to her surprise, it never came. Her heart began to fill with a sickening joy as she began to take the hint that she had finally defeated – or even worse – killed Rainbow Dash. Using her magic, she threw the smoke aside and stared with anticipating eyes to the limp blue pegasus ahead of her. A smile grew on her face as she confirmed her sight. "Finally, I've beat that annoying brat!"

She dropped onto the ground and landed gently, looking up to her brother mischievously. "Now it's time for me to deal with you… And then get rid of this world; being the ruler of this pitiful place wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. I'll do it some other time." Eris looked her brother in the eye and aimed her claw at him, preparing to finish off the younger being of chaos. With a smirk, she powered the pitch black ball of evil energy in her grasp, "It's been a fun run, brother, but now it's time we depart. _For good_." She flipped her hair from in front of her eyes and lowly spoke the last words her brother would hear, "Arrivederci."

"No!"

Eris turned around quickly and looked to back to where the light voice cut off her ultimate catchphrase. "What's this?" She was utterly surprised when she found Pinkie Pie standing behind a cannon with a military helmet and black tape on her cheeks.

Pinkie narrowed her eyes and loaded the cannon with a large colorful ball as she continued her sentence. "The right phrase goes…" She paused and reached behind her, coming back up with a pair of shades on her face. With a deeper voice, she finished the sentence, "Hasta la vista." Then, she took a match and placed it on the wick of the cannon, "Baby."

* * *

**BOOM! I hope you liked this chapter guys; it was really hard to write since I was trying to juggle my time with high school and FanFiction for the first time. Don't worry; I won't leave you hanging like that again… (Anytime soon, at least.) Well, until next time, my friends. – FrozenAgent47. **


	12. Discord's New Power

**Hey guys! It's me again with another s****_hocking_**** chapter to the story you all support so very well. So, lately, I've been talking to a fellow brony of mine who stays up-to-date with this story and he was telling me that the ferocity and seriousness seems a bit too 'rough' for My Little Pony. I want to make this as ****_close _****to MLP as possible, so I don't want to seem anywhere near grim-dark. So, I really need you guys to tell me how I'm making the tone feel in these chapters; I want to give you the best work I can conjure up.**

** As always, I hope you enjoy this chapter and let me know if you do or don't with a good 'ole review. – FrozenAgent47.**

* * *

Eris growled lowly and pulled her right arm up and prepared to rush at Pinkie Pie. She knew that she was fast enough to take her down and stop the cannon before it went off, but something prevented her from doing that.

"Hey Eris!" Discord called from his prison, a mischievous smirk planted on his face. He had something planned, and it was obvious to everypony.

Just as he wanted, she turned her head and looked high left and saw her brother sticking his tongue out and making childish faces at her. Her face grew red with annoyance as she let out a roar of anger, "That's it! I'm tired of you all –"

The Goddess of Chaos's voice was drowned out by the cannon's booming shot that deafened everypony nearby. Before she could change her gaze back to her attacker, a heavy, fast-moving ball of confetti slammed into her form and threw her off balance. As the colored paper surrounded her, she spread her wings to steady herself. It didn't take long for her to get back on both her feet, but when she did, visibility was at a minimum. Streaks of blue and red and yellow and pink and all of the colorful colors floated around her as she frantically searched for Pinkie Pie, but to no avail.

Standing dumbstruck in the middle of the cloud of confetti, Eris balled her claw and paw and shut her eyes tight, "SHOW YOURSELF COWARD!"

Pinkie Pie whispered from behind her, "I'm no coward..."

Eris instantly turned around and swung her claw with massive force. "Yah!"

With honed skills (that she was never taught), the pink earth pony ducked under her excessively sharp nails. She bounced back into place after dodging the attack and smiled brightly as she stared Eris in the eyes, her own light blue eyes sparkling with an indestructible happiness, "I'm a pony!"

The draconequus's eyes went wide with fury as her face grew blood red. Steam rushed out of her ears as she opened her mouth to scream. Before she could do so, Pinkie Pie cut her off and began speaking once more. "A pink _earth_ pony to be specific, but I don't think that's what you meant…" From those words on, Pinkie Pie began to get more and more intricate with whom she was.

Outside of the confetti-screen, Discord stood in his cube, leaning against the wall of the dark red magical prison tiredly. Staring at the vast array of floating colors, he whispered to himself, "This is starting to get boring…" Soon, however, his eyes grew wide as the screen of colored paper scattered and revealed the two forms he'd been waiting to see. His heart sunk instantly.

Pinkie Pie was sitting on the ground, her legs stuck to the cracked concrete by magical, spider-like webs. With wide, oblivious eyes, she looked down at the rest of her body and saw that more of the magical web wrapped around her and squeezed her arms against her sides. She shuffled some and after realizing she couldn't move, she could feel tears build up in her eyes.

"Hah, finally! That'll keep you out of my hair for now…" Eris said as she stretched and popped the joints in her hands. "Now I can –"

"Waaaaaaaah!" Pinkie Pie burst into tears as she squirmed in her webbed prison. "This… This… Hurts!" The pink earth pony then went into another round of sobs. A river of tears spilled from her eyes and covered the ground around her.

With no hesitation, Eris aimed her paw at Pinkie's mouth and fired another web with a growl. "Silence, filly!" As she wanted, the pink pony went quiet, but that didn't stop her from crying her sad, muffled cries. The draconequus rolled her eyes and sighed, "At least it's better…" She changed the subject as she looked around the town square and yelled into the air, "Is there anypony else who wants to fight?!"

The wind blew soundlessly as Eris asked her question, satisfying her completely. She grinned evilly and looked to her younger brother, "Looks like you're the last one…" Eris bared her teeth as she prepared to attack Discord, but a voice cut her off.

"I think _you _need to learn to count again," said Rarity, who had just entered the scene. Eris gritted her teeth in annoyance as she turned to looked to where the white unicorn's voice was coming from; honestly, she was tired of being interrupted. Rarity finished her sentence as the Goddess of Chaos laid eyes on her, "Because there's more of us than that!"

Before Eris could figure out what the white unicorn's plan was, she could see a blur of orange coming from her right. With a smirk, she leaned back and let Applejack fly right past her, "Nice try!" She pointed her claw at the orange earth pony's landing point and snapped her fingers, causing a ditch to suddenly appear. With wide eyes, Applejack dropped right into the shallow hole in the ground. A painful-sounding thud echoed into the air as she landed on the ground of the ditch.

Up above, Discord angrily pointed at his sister and barked, "Hey! She copied my snapping move! Copy-cat!"

Eris rolled her eyes at her brother and turned to Rarity, who had just finished throwing something at her with her magic. The Goddess of Chaos blinked as the small rock tapped against her chest and dropped onto the ground almost soundlessly. She squinted and looked up to the white unicorn with a facial expression that matched her only word. "Really?"

Rarity's face grew red as she giggled sheepishly, "You see, I couldn't find anything to throw and – I should run now…" With no hesitation, she burst into a gallop and tried to run away from Eris, but she caught her with a magic spell that she thought was rather 'cool'. The Goddess of Chaos stopped the white unicorn by using her magic to freeze Rarity inside a block of ice.

The fashion designer's eyes were wide with fear as she stood in the ice cube stiffly. Still able to move her eyes, though, she looked directly to Eris, who was speaking of her cunning magic skills. "Hm, I enjoy this spell I put on you…" The Goddess of Chaos stepped toward the cube and ran her talons along it slowly, "It gives the situation a _cold _touch, don't you think?"

Discord yelled after his sister from the background of the battle, "That was the worst punch line I've ever heard!"

"Shut up, Discord!" Eris screeched as she turned and looked to her brother, utterly annoyed by his childishness. Why was he even acting that way? His friends were fighting – and _losing_ – and he was cracking jokes?

He raised his arms in defense and shrugged, grinning playfully as he replied to her, "Whaaat?" Little did his sister know, he had her exactly where he wanted her; angry. By doing what he did best (annoying people out of their minds), he would soon get his sister on a level of anger that would make her overall battle performance fail, and from then on, the battle was going to be a win for Equestria. From what he saw so far, he was doing a fairly good job.

Eris gritted her teeth as she stared with pure fury at her brother; why was he so light-hearted about the situation at hand? Why was he not taking her seriously?! Why –

The Goddess of Chaos's thoughts were thrown off by a semi-loud 'bang' and a sudden flash of light that spread across the town square. She growled and turned to her left, where the source of her new interruption was, "Oh, what now?!"

As the light dimmed, three ponies could be seen stepping toward the draconequus, but one of them had hurried to confront her, despite the fact that he was already injured from his previous encounters with Sir Blackheart. Shining Armor gritted his teeth and stared Eris in her eyes, getting in his battle stance as he spoke lowly, "So you're Eris, huh?"

"The one and only," she replied arrogantly as she cleaned one of her nails. She flipped her hair from in front of her eyes and smirked. "And you're Shining Armor, I suppose."

"Pleased to meet 'ya." Shining Armor said, aiming his horn at her with eyes full of vigor. A magical pink aura surrounded his entire body as he prepared to attack.

From behind him, Twilight ran after him and yelled to him in attempts release him from his angered state of mind. "Shining Armor! Don't fight her head on! You won't –"

Nightfall grabbed her as gently as he could and held her back, receiving a confused, tearful look from the lavender alicorn. He sighed and shook his head, "Let him go. I'm sure he knows what he's doing."

Twilight narrowed her eyes and reluctantly agreed. "Fine… But where's everypony…" Her sentence trailed off as she looked away from the colt and to the rest of the town square, where she found Pinkie stuck to the ground by magical webs, Rarity trapped in a giant ice cube, Rainbow Dash knocked out cold, and a ditch in the ground where Applejack's voice cried for help. "Else?" She looked to the ground and shook her head; this wasn't supposed to happen! They were supposed to come and defeat Eris altogether, but instead, Luna had to stay back and encourage Fluttershy to come along, not to mention that her friends that arrived were defeated easily.

A feeling of hopelessness began conjuring in Twilight's heart as her brother went to battle with Equestria's greatest threat – and most likely soon-to-be ruler. Tears built up in her eyes as she sniffled and shook her head a little faster. "This can't be happening!" Before the first drop of sadness escaped her eyes, she felt a hoof take a gentle hold of her chin.

Slowly looking up, she saw a pair of dark blue eyes staring into hers lovingly. Nightfall's calming voice came right afterward, drowning out everything else that was happening around them. As he spoke, he used his hoof to wipe the tears from her eyes, "Twilight… Things may not be seeming very bright right now, but think of what you've accomplished before this. From what you've told me, your adventures make you one of the strongest ponies alive. If you can take down evil unicorns and an army of Changelings, I'm sure you can overcome this challenge as well…" His eyes sparkled as he said these words.

Rarity, who was still frozen in her ice block, had seen the two talking, and she couldn't help but let out a long, "Aaaawwww!" Even though nopony could hear her, it added more romance to the situation at hand.

Twilight started to blush as she stared deeply in the colt's eyes, a warm feeling filling her heart until a loud groan of pain caught her attention.

Shining Armor tumbled onto the ground as his body finally gave out from the beatings it took from both Blackheart and Eris. Standing above the unconscious, white unicorn, Eris chuckled victoriously and used her magic to pick him up and set him aside next to Rainbow Dash. "Now that _that's_ over with…" She looked to Twilight then with an evil grin stretched across her face. "How about we finish this once and for all, Princess?"

With her quick-thinking skills, Twilight pushed Nightfall aside and spoke to him lowly, "Go to the others and use your magic to free them; I'll try to buy you some time to help them escape."

Nightfall fidgeted and answered with an unsure tone, "B-But my magic skills –"

Instantly, the purple alicorn cut off his sentence with a passionate kiss. As Twilight closed her eyes, the colt's eyes grew wide, as well as everypony who was awake around them. The town square went silent instantly as the two shared their moment.

Wondering what was happening above, Applejack yelled from her ditch, "Aye, what's goin' on up there?" Even Eris, who was the Goddess of all Chaos and had the power to bend reality (but lacked temper to control that power), stared in awe at the scene; love was something she didn't see often.

She refused to give into the heartwarming moment as she shook her head and attempted to interrupt the two, but to no avail. "Okay, enough lovie-dovie stuff, we've got a battle to finish!"

Ignoring the draconequus, Twilight pulled her lips away from his and smiled gently, a light shade of pink trailing across her cheeks. She whispered softly to him, "You can do it… I believe in you…"

Blushing as well, Nightfall nodded and turned around slowly before he took off to help Rarity, who was beginning to get uncomfortable in her ice cube. "Thank you."

Twilight nodded to him before looking back to Eris, shaking the blush from her cheeks and putting on her 'game face'. "Alright… Let's do this!"

"Oh, I've been waiting to fight you for a while, young princess," Eris said as she took a small step toward the purple alicorn, flipping her hair from in front of her eyes.

Then, another voice echoed through the town square. "Unfortunately, you won't be battling her now, Eris."

Instantly, Discord leaned against the magical wall of his prison cube with wide eyes and gasped as he watched the princess drop down onto the ground in front of Twilight. "Tia!"

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed happily, her hopes skyrocketing then and there; with the most powerful alicorn at their side, they were sure to win.

With a soft smile, the white alicorn looked back to her star pupil and spoke, "It's nice to see you again, Twilight, but I want you to help Nightfall free your friends…" She narrowed her eyebrows and got serious again as she looked back ahead of her, "I'll deal with her."

Eris bit her lip in anticipation of the fight she was about to fight. She thought to herself then, "_Oh, this is going to be fun. Not only do I get to defeat a young princess, but an elder one as well?! Hah! Everyone's going to know my name by the time I'm done with this place!"_ The draconequus stood in her defensive stance and gestured to Celestia to attack her with her paw, a large smirk crossing her face.

Twilight nodded to her mentor and rushed to assist Nightfall with his task.

"So I finally get to meet the famed Princess Celestia!" Eris squealed in sarcastic joy, her wings spreading into the air. "I'm so excited!"

"I'm sure you haven't come all this way just to talk," Celestia said instantly, preparing her horn for her magical attacks. "So how about we just get straight to the point?"

The Goddess of Chaos smirked and spread her arms apart, a dark magic aura filling in the palms of her claw and paw as she prepared to fight the ruler of Equestria. "Ooh, you're feisty." With a soft giggle, she stomped on the ground, causing a large magical force field to surround both her and Celestia. "Let's dance."

Celestia smirked as well as she spread her wings, her horn glowing with its light gold aura. "Let's." The large, white unicorn then threw herself toward the draconequus and into the midst of battle.

Discord stared with eyes full of insecurity, biting his nails ferociously as Eris threw her magic at Celestia. His heart pounded like a drum as he watched the two fight, the magic they used flashing light across the town square repeatedly. Only seconds into the battle and it seemed like both of them were beginning to wear out; it was all happening so fast! One moment he saw the princess in the air firing a golden magic blast at Eris, and the next he could see his sister tackling Celestia onto the ground.

Seeing the princess's struggle, Discord felt his heart skip a beat. He pounded on the wall of his prison, ignoring the fact that the size of the magical cube shrunk rapidly, "Tia! You've got to beat her! You _can _beat her!"

With the Goddess of Chaos right above her, Celestia heard Discord's words of inspiration and inhaled deeply. She closed her magenta eyes and folded her wings into her back. Trying to find her inner power, she spoke inwardly, "_He's right… I can do this. Think of when you were fighting Nightmare Moon… Stay calm and -" _

Eris placed a kicked down on Celestia's chest and grinned, "Really? That was much easier than I expected. Maybe you should've stayed where you were." She took her foot from the princess and folded her arms above the injured princess. "Well, I guess I could just help you out here…"

The princess opened her eyes slightly and looked up to the female draconequus with a face of disgust. Saying nothing, she inwardly regretted taking on Eris with so much haste – so much foolishness. Celestia looked away from the Goddess of Chaos and to the border of the magical barrier that blocked the two from the rest of Equestria. Her heart sank as she saw a crying Twilight beating uselessly on the dark red force field. The young princess repeatedly called for her mentor, using all the magical attacks she knew in attempts to break the shield, but to no avail. "Celestia!"

Emotionlessly, Eris rolled her eyes and sighed, "Yes, yes, boohoo, but let's get this over with now… I've a country to destroy."

"No, you don't," Discord said simply as he snapped his fingers, his prison instantly disappearing. With those words, all eyes fell on him. He gently flapped his wings until he landed on the ground, right in front of the force field.

His sister giggled slightly and teased him, "It's nice to know you're able to escape small prisons, brother, but you'll never be able to get through this barrier." Her giggling was instantly stopped when the magical field fell to one touch of Discord's talons. She looked at her brother with wide eyes asked with awe in her voice, "How?!"

Discord shook his head and replied to her with an angered-filled tone, "Never mind that; just know you're going to get the beat down of your life." He looked back to Twilight, who had rushed to Celestia's side once the force field fell. "Twilight, get Tia to safety. I think it's time I got back in the game…" The lavender alicorn said nothing as she carefully picked up Celestia with her magic and carried her away from the battle.

"Taking your beloved princess isn't going to save you, you know that right?" Eris said as she prepared herself to win another battle.

Staying absolutely silent, her younger brother launched himself toward her with fury burning in his eyes. A dark, magical fire covered his paw as he swung it at his sister, who instantly dropped onto the ground and dodged his attack. Hopping back onto her feet, she grabbed Discord's arm and yelled at him, "What do you think you're doing?! Don't you have the decency to tell me when you're going to attack?!"

"I'm a spirit of chaos, none of that matters, now does it?" Discord replied lowly as he smirked rather evilly. Eris blinked and tilted her head; had her brother finally given in to the true ways of chaos? That mattered none, though, if he wanted to act like that; two could play at that game.

"That's the spirit!" She said quickly before she placed her paw on his chest and growled loudly. He grabbed her arm with his claw and squeezed it as tightly as he could, but, actually… He started to feel weaker. "Speaking of spirits," Eris continued, "I think someone's getting theirs drained right now."

Before he could resist her grasp in any way, Discord's color suddenly faded out, and he grew colorless. He groaned silently here and there, but other than that, he just stared his sister in her eyes as she took his power away from him. Soon enough, there was nothing left to take, and Discord's hold on his sister's arms grew weak. "Y-You…"

"What? That wasn't fair? I'm a cheater?" Eris scoffed as she let go of her brother, allowing him to drop limply on the ground. "Get with the program, bro."

As he dropped onto the ground, he looked up to the sky and thought deeply about what was just happening. He had the power to bend reality, and he hadn't done everything in his chaotic power to destroy his sister?! Right, the reforming thing, he forgot… Still, couldn't he have done something with his limitless pool of power to defeat Eris? Well, it was too late now. And it was all his fault. Staring into the red clouds above, Discord thought to himself, "_I'm sorry guys… I didn't mean to fail you." _

"_You didn't," _Celestia's voice said within his mind.

"_Wait… What? Tia? How'd you get -" _

_"No time to explain, Discord. I just want you to know that no matter what happens; you'll still be someone I care about. To me, you're no spirit of chaos; you never were. You're more than that. You're more than a friend to me. If Eris wins this battle and gets whatever she wants, there's only one thing that matters. I've been waiting for millennia to tell you this, and I'm sure this isn't the best of times, but it matters none. I love you, Discord, and that will never change." _

With a force no other than love, Discord's body began to rise from its former position. A bright light surrounded his entire body and blinded Eris, who was marveling at the power she had taken from her brother. Putting her paw over her eyes, she yelled over the strong winds that her brother had stirred up with the power he was suddenly letting off, "What?! How are you doing this?! I took your power!"

Discord had stood upright as he gently landed on the ground, a small grin on his face as he looked to his sister. Honestly, it looked like he was happier than he ever was, despite the fact that Equestria's fate was at hand. He shook his head and spoke to his sister, "No. You took my evil… My power now relies on something stronger. Something…" He paused and looked back to looked Celestia and smiled a little brighter before he looked back to his sister. "More special."

"What is it, huh?! The power of love?!" Eris angrily yelled at him, all of this friendship and happiness was starting to get on her nerves. As she barked furiously at her brother, dark purple flames emitted from her mouth and licked at him.

He simply nodded and folded his arms, "Yep. Say, do you still want to fight or are we too intimidating to challenge now?"

Eris let out one quick chuckle and got into her battle position, "You're nowhere _near_ intimdating!"

"Well, let's cut the chatter and get this over with, shall we?" Discord smirked as he slipped on a pair of shades for the fight. There was something different about him, and everypony around knew it.

Now that Nightfall and Twilight rescued their friends from the former situations they were in, Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor were beginning to come to consciousness and Applejack and the others were finally out of their traps Eris had put them in. Everypony gathered in a group and watched the two siblings go head-to-head in the battle that balanced out life or death for all of them.

Celestia wearily whispered as she leaned against Twilight for support, "You can do it, Discord…"


	13. Cadance's Return

** Alright guys, you ready?! Before I jump into this chapter, I just want to thank you guys for coming along with me so far. I found out that this story has reached over 2,000 views and honestly, I think that's absolutely amazing, and it's all come true because of you guys! And if this seems like a 'farewell' type of author's notes – it's not. I just want to commemorate you guys for sticking with me so far and boosting this story up to where it is today.**

** I don't want to hold you guys up any longer with things I've already said, so I'll just leave you to the chapter. Enjoy!**

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Rainbow Dash hopped into the air and spread her wings as she threw her forelegs in the air, cheering on for Discord. "Yeah, you get 'er Discord! Give her what she deserves! Knock her –"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight yelled over the loud clashing between the two siblings, "That isn't helping!"

The light blue pegasus raised an eyebrow and shrugged, "What? I'm just trying to help him out!"

Celestia then stepped in to make sense of Twilight's words, "Yes, but Discord needs to concentrate. He isn't used to his new powers yet, and he can't take the risk of distractions." Her words of wisdom were one of the only things that got through Rainbow's head at the moment.

"Oh," she sheepishly grinned and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, "Yeah. I knew that."

Twilight rolled her eyes and looked back to the fight, whispering soundlessly. "C'mon Discord, you can do this…" Her eyes sparkled with hope as she inwardly cheered on her friend.

Discord narrowed his eyes as he jumped to the left, successfully dodging a magical blast that Eris threw at him. He gritted his teeth as he jumped to the right then, easily evading another blast that his sister tried to hit him with. The draconequus looked to the burn mark on the concrete and then back to his sister with a smile, giggling softly like a little girl as he did so.

The Goddess of Chaos sighed and rolled her eyes as she powered two magic attacks in her paw and claw. "What are you laughing at?"

"You have no aim, sis. None at all," he said between bursts of laughter. Paying no attention to the steam blowing out of his sister's nose, he used his magic to create a target on his chest; the same trick he used against the Elements of Harmony when they first met. "You know what? Let me help you. Take your best shot!"

Eris grinned evilly and stretched her arms apart, the magic spheres growing rapidly in both size and as well as power. "Have it your way! It'll be _your _loss." Once she felt like she had put enough power in her attacks, she threw her arms forward and blasted her magic toward her brother. The waves of dark energy flew through the air quickly, and before everypony knew it, debris and smoke spread across the town square.

Some gasps had come from the crowd of ponies that were watching the battle, which had given Eris a sense of triumph. She had defeated –

"_My _loss, eh?" Discord asked his sister as he leaned against her shoulder, biting down on an apple coolly.

She pushed her brother off of her and stuttered in absolute confusion, "What the – How did you do that?!"

"Well…" He held the word as he reached behind him and came back with a scholar's hat and a pair of giant, nerdy glasses. "When your magical attacks had neared me, I used my own magic to enhance my normal speed movement by easily over 100%. That puts me right under the speed of Rainbow Dash there," he paused and pointed to the light blue pegasus in the background, who arrogantly posed. He quickly continued as he looked back to his sister, "So, before your attack was able to harm me, I was already getting me an apple from a shop somewhere around here. By the time your blast hit the ground, I was already leaning against you, nomming innocently on my apple." Discord then took off of the hat and glasses and tossed them aside, two earsplitting explosions shaking the ground as they landed. With a smirk, he finished his explanation of what had happened and took another bite of his apple, "You should've seen it coming."

"She really should have," Rarity agreed and she whispered to Twilight, who stared at her with an annoyed face. The white unicorn blinked and placed a hoof on her chest in defense, "What? I'm just saying -"

Eris cut off Rarity's whispers as she let out an earsplitting screech, causing her brother to stumble in surprise. Placing his paw and claw over his ears, Discord backed away from his sister, now getting back into his serious state of mind. A pitch black aura of evil power swirled around her feet as she began transforming into the monster she truly was.

Her fur grew as black as night and gave off a fiery appearance as her wings doubled in size, both taking the form of the wings of a black dragon. She stared at her paw and claw as they both faded into black, feeling a surge of energy flowing through her. Her fury had finally become power. The wind began to pick up as Eris transformed, knocking trees and weakened buildings to the ground instantly.

"Now is the time you pay, brother!" Eris exclaimed wrathfully as the dark aura covered her entire body, leaving her eyes to magically glow red. Her voice was many in one, like Queen Chrysalis's, but _much _more menacing. Besides, she _was _the Goddess of Chaos, and she _was _transforming into a giant, angry demon, unlike the Changeling Queen, who simply shape-shifted into an innocent pony and nothing else, so yeah, she was definitely more menacing.

Twilight tilted her head in confusion and stared intently at the Goddess of Chaos with fright; she was literally a shadow with red eyes – something the princess had never seen before. Even Celestia, who had seen millennia worth of different kinds of evil entities, had never seen something like this.

The sky grew black above as Eris grew stronger, her evil laughs echoing through the Crystal Empire. It wasn't long until the winds died down and her transformation was complete, and when she was, everypony simply stared at her with awe. Even she herself couldn't believe what was happening, but yet, she managed to get as 'calm' as possible and use the opportunity to finally defeat those annoying ponies. With a smirk, she took note of Discord's look of confusion. "What's wrong brother? Have you never witnessed true power before?"

Discord shook his head and got back in the game, gritting his teeth together tightly. He _had _to win! There was no other way this could work out! If he lost this battle; he lost his friends. He lost Equestria. He lost Celestia. That's exactly where his mind screamed at him, "_I can't have that happen!" _The younger draconequus smirked and prepared his battle position, "No, it's just that you look _hideous!_ Seriously, sis, you need to invest in some make-up!"

"That's it! You're done for!" Eris screeched as she threw her arm forward. Instead of the usual magic blast escaping from her paw, her arm extended as a whole, which definitely caught Discord off guard.

With wide eyes, the draconequus watched his sister's arm reach for him. "What the –"

Before he could finish his phrase, Eris's hand gently landed on his chest, causing him to look at it and attempt to jump away. Unfortunately, he was too slow. In the palm of her demon-like hand, the Goddess of Chaos shot a blast of unimaginably powerful magic right into him.

Instantly, Discord was thrown off of his feet and hurtling into the air painfully. Though his new power was a definite upgrade to his abilities in fighting his sister, it seemed like that she still had the upper hand. The entire crowd watching the fight yelled after him as the flashing light of Eris's attack began to fade out. "Discord!" He let out a groan as he slid across the ground when he landed, kicking up small trail of dirt. Not even fully recovering from the attack, the draconequus struggled to get back up.

Eris growled lowly before powering another attack after her arm retracted back to its original size. A wicked joy began to grow inside of her as she realized that the power she withheld was not to be reckoned with. The dark magic within her was much more than the power of chaos; it was the power of all evil! "You should have been smarter a long time ago, brother… Now look where it's gotten you; crawling in the dirt for a bunch of ponies! You could've been better!" She raised her right arm and began giggling evilly. "It's over."

With those words, she launched her attack at her nearly incapacitated brother. The light from her immensely powerful magic shined across the town square and blinded everypony around, destroying any chances of one of the others coming to save him. A smile crossed the Goddess of Chaos's face as the long-awaited explosion rang through the air and shook the ground violently. It was finally over. As the light from her magic faded out once more, smoke rose from where Discord was. That was all the others needed to know to realize what had happened.

Gasps riddled through the group of ponies as they stared in sadness of what had just happened to their friend. Eris grinned with a sick joy filling her soul; she had finally taken down her brother. It was finally –

"That… Was close," Discord softly groaned as he dropped onto the ground not too far from his previous position. More gasps emitted from the ponies, but these consisted of awe and confusion. Standing beside the draconequus was a black-coated stallion with dark purple hair that complemented his cyan blue eyes.

Twilight looked at the stallion with wide eyes and called his name, "Blackheart?"

After making sure Discord was okay, the alicorn looked to Twilight and smiled softly, shrugging softly, "I thought about what you said and figured it wouldn't hurt helping you out."

Before the princess could say anything back to him, Eris interrupted them and pointed her excessively long finger at Blackheart, "Oh, you'll soon find out that it's going to hurt big time!"

Blackheart turned and looked to Eris, determination sparking in his eyes. He spread his wings and grinned slightly, "I used to fear you Eris, but Twilight showed me that you're just a bully…"

"A really powerful bully," Pinkie Pie added in.

With a soft chuckle, he nodded to the pink earth pony, "She's right. But still, I know that if I try hard enough… I'll be able to take you down."

Eris raised an eyebrow and smirked at the stallion, "You know you can't defeat me alone, and you should definitely know that those ponies wouldn't want to team up with you. Not after what you've done to their precious princess."

The black alicorn's heart skipped a beat as she said these words. He instantly relived the moment where he destroyed the Crystal Heart, which soon lead to the demise of Princess Cadance.

Shining Armor pushed past the others and made his way to the front of the crown, shrugging off the pain his battle wounds put on him. He yelled to Eris and demanded an answer; he just _knew _they were talking about Cadance. It didn't really worry him in the beginning when he couldn't find Cadance; he was sure that she was doing something important. But when the city was evacuated and he still couldn't find his wife, he knew for sure that something was wrong. "What are you talking about?!"

"Oh, your sister and the fashion queen haven't told you yet?" Eris smirked as she saw the heavy guilt build in both of the pony's minds. "I'm surprised! But never mind that now, prince, I'll tell you myself."

"You'd better!" Shining Armor yelled angrily as he slammed his hoof on the ground.

Ignoring the prince's anger, the Goddess of Chaos had spoken blandly. "Before I arrived here, I'm sure you witnessed Blackheart destroying the Crystal Heart, correct?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It was Cadance's source of power, and without it… She soon perished," Blackheart finished Eris's explanation guiltily, his head hanging low.

Shining Armor's heart skipped a beat; he couldn't believe what he just heard! Cadance was… No, that couldn't be true! It just couldn't! Soon enough, though, the realism started to set in, and the prince stared at the ground deep in thought, sadness and grief burning his soul. "No…"

Eris smirked and used her magic to speak within Shining Armor's mind. "_Oh, it must be very sad… But you have to realize it's all Blackheart's fault that your love is gone. You'll never see her again all because of __**him.**_"

Seeing the mischievous looked on the Goddess of Chaos's face, Twilight knew that she was doing something evil, even if she wasn't moving a muscle. Suddenly, her attention was drawn from Eris to her brother, who abruptly launched at Blackheart with anger riddling across his face. The white unicorn tackled him onto the ground and placed his hooves right on his neck, yelling down at the black alicorn, "You did this! This is _your _fault!"

Barely being able to breath, Blackheart tried to fight against him, but his attempts were absolutely futile; Shining Armor was just too strong. He stared the prince in the eyes and strained his words, "Wait! Give me a chance!" The alicorn was beginning to realize that if he couldn't fight alongside the ponies; he could at least give them somepony they wanted to fight with. Someone they'd actually trust. For the sake of Eris's downfall, he'd do anything.

"A chance to what – take somepony else special from me?!"

He shook his head and replied to Shining Armor's question weakly, his face quickly turning purple. "No… I can bring your wife back!"

In the background of the heated moment, Eris yawned and tapped on an imaginary watch; she was beginning to grow impatient of this small, useless talk.

To Shining Armor, though, these words were much more than small and useless. They were everything to him. Loosening his grip on Blackheart's throat, the prince stared into his eyes and spoke through gritted teeth of anger, "How?"

"If I could breath, I'm pretty sure I'd be able to tell you," the alicorn said, his eyes barely open; even with a loosened grip on him, Shining Armor's hooves were one of the most dangerous things he'd ever encountered.

The white unicorn stepped onto his hooves and looked down at Blackheart with narrowed eyes, his horn glowing with its dark pink magical aura; if he even _thought _about making a move, Shining Armor was going to make sure he paid for what he did. "Talk," he said lowly, a soft growl escaping his throat as he spoke.

Slowly making his way to all fours, Blackheart rubbed his neck and pushed through the pain the prince had inflicted upon him.

Watching them both, Nightfall smirked slightly at Blackheart's reaction to Shining Armor's attack; he knew exactly how he felt.

"I can use my magic to bring your wife back, but…" The black alicorn paused his sentence as he looked to the ground, trying to find a simple way to explain the downside of the spell he would use to the prince.

Shining Armor sighed and parroted Blackheart's final word, "But?" Honestly, he had no patience within him to let the stallion in front of him to get caught up in his words; if he could bring Cadance back, he was going to do it.

"He'd have to use his own life force to have Cadance return," Celestia said softly, stepping in from behind Shining Armor.

Blackheart looked up to the princess and quickly took a bow, "Princess Celestia; I apologize for my former behavior, I –"

She shook her head and cut his sentence off short, raising a hoof at him, "Worry of it none, Blackheart. I see you are attempting to redeem yourself, and that is what matters most now."

He nodded slightly as he stood back on all fours. "_So much for a non-redemption quest,_" he joked within his mind, remembering when he told Celestia that his quest for Equestria was not for redemption earlier on.

"What you are doing is very noble, but the cost is very high as well. Do you –"

"Can you all hurry up here?! I'm trying to destroy a country here!" Eris rushed the ponies and sighed with annoyance in her tone.

Celestia ignored the draconequus's comment and finished her question for Blackheart, "Do you understand what you are proposing, young prince?"

Blackheart smirked and nodded, "Well, I haven't been called that in a while, despite the wings." He spread his wings slightly and referred to the fact that he was an alicorn, and usually, all alicorns were considered royalty. Quickly shaking the small joke out of his head, the black alicorn nodded and closed his eyes, preparing to perform the spell. "Yes, I know what I'm doing, Princess… I'd advise you to step back, though; this spell isn't a weak one."

With no hesitation, both ponies stepped away from him and left him to do his magic. As Shining Armor looked back to the black alicorn, he saw his horn grow a bright red and his eyes open slightly. He gave Blackheart a nod that symbolized his unspoken thanks. It wasn't long until he nodded back, speaking back without words, "_You're welcome."_

Blackheart closed his eyes once more and concentrated deeply on his spell, the ground gently trembling as he did so. A bright light formed under his hooves as a circle and began spinning quickly, bringing wonder to the minds of everypony who watched. His wings had spread far apart as the spell grew stronger, shaking the ground more violently among its progression. Suddenly, his head jerked upward and aimed his horn to the sky, his magical aura changing from dark red to a bright white. His horn shot a beam into the sky, a deafening 'screech' sound following it right after.

Eris yawned and created a pair onyx gems with her magic, twirling them between her fingers as she waited for Blackheart to finish his useless spell. She thought it'd be fun to take down another pony before finally getting rid of that stupid country. Still, though, she wondered how long her new powers would last. Was it only her anger that fueled it? She definitely had to find out – of course, after she destroyed Equestria, that is.

By the time Goddess of Chaos looked up from her gems, she was blinded by another sudden flash of light. "_Gosh, these ponies are annoyingly_ _bright; why is their magic so… __**shiny**__?_" She thought as she covered her eyes from the source of illumination with her dark, shadowy hand. Eris grinned slightly and prepared to meet – and defeat – Cadance for the first and last time.

When the light faded out, Eris looked up quickly and saw exactly what she was waiting for. In the sky, there was a pink alicorn with her wings spread out wide and her horn bright with a magical aura.

"Cadance!" Shining Armor exclaimed happily, a smile growing on his face. He shared the same expression as everypony around him; absolutely ecstatic that the Spirit of Love had returned.

Landing on the ground gently, the pink alicorn had let her wings fold slowly into her back as she raised her head to see who her opponent was. She had a grim look on her face as she stepped past her friends and directly toward Eris. Everypony's mouths dropped open as one of the kindest ponies alive just ignored them.

Pinkie Pie popped above all of the others and stared with wide eyes, "Yup. She's mad."

Eris smirked and placed a hand on her hip and stared deep into Cadance's eyes with her own dark red optics, "Ooh, you must be angry! You're not even going to greet your loved ones? It _is _going to be the last time you see them, you know."

Cadance stopped and stomped her hooves on theconcrete, cracking it instantly_. _"You've come to my empire and threatened my people. You've attacked my friends and you've hurt my husband! Eris," she paused as she took another step forward, a strike of lightning zipping across the air right behind her. An earsplitting wave of thunder rolled in soon after, and when it died down, the princess continued, "I'm definitely angry. And as much as a spirit of love isn't supposed to say this; I have to say it…"

"You. Are. Going. **Down!**"

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**I hope you liked the emphasis I put on the end there, but never mind that, I've some awesome news to tell you guys; the next chapter is A Change of Heart's finale! And because of that; it's going to be super epic and full of awesome catchphrases and colorful explosions and stuffs like that. Thanks for checking out this chapter and I hope you tune in again for what I have in store for you guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did (or didn't), review! Until next time, guys! :D – FrozenAgent47. **


	14. The Final Battle

** Hey guys! Are you as excited as I am?! You probably are. o.o Lol, I worked really hard on this chapter for you guys, so I hope you enjoy it and review if you do – and if you don't, you still can tell me where I went wrong. Well, before I decide to get wordy and bore you guys to death with a super-long speech, I'll just thank you for reading this and supporting A Change of Heart to where it is today.**

** Without further ado, I give you A Change of Heart's finale! (DUN DUN! :D)**

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Eris smirked as she stood tall above Princess Cadance, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get this party started!" Her eyes grew a brighter red as she prepared her battle stance.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie popped up with two ridiculously large cakes in her hooves and screamed happily, "WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A PARTY!"

Both Eris and Cadance looked to her with eyes full of bewilderment; whispering the same thing to themselves, "Awkward…"

Twilight grabbed her pink friend by her tail and pulled her back to the ground, causing her to drop the cakes. "Pinkie! It's not that kind of party!" She blinked and shook her head, correcting herself then, "It's not a party at all! It's a figure of speech!"

Pinkie looked to the purple alicorn with her large, innocent blue eyes. "Oh. Sorry." She playfully giggled and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof, "I just thought I'd bring the best part of the party to the party."

Twilight giggled silently and rolled her eyes at the pink earth pony as she looked back to the fight, still amazed at out Pinkie Pie could make her happy in the most suspenseful situation in history. Sure, her special talent was to make everypony smile, but the fight for Equestria's fate was one of those moments that she didn't expect to smile during.

Her smile was erased from her face with haste when she saw that Cadance was the only one standing in the middle of the town square. She scanned the sky and the ruins of the buildings nearby quickly, but she couldn't find Eris anywhere.

"Where did she go?" Rainbow Dash asked as she floated above the others, her head tilted far right in confusion. A few equally oblivious mumbles came from the others as Eris officially went 'missing'.

"I don't know, Rainbow, but I have a bad feeling that she didn't go for long…" Twilight said uneasily, rapidly changing her gaze from place to place to find the Goddess of Chaos.

Cadance stomped her hoof on the ground and yelled into the silent, still air, "This is no time for games! Where are you, Eris?!"

"Behind you, princess!" Eris roared as she suddenly rose from the ground behind Cadance, raising her right arm in the air.

With wide eyes filled with surprise, Cadance quickly turned around and aimed her horn at the Goddess of Chaos, but she was much too late.

Eris threw her hand at the princess's side with devastating force, tossing her to the left with ease. Cadance yelped in pain and shut her eyes tight as she flew through the air.

Shining Armor gritted his teeth with anger, worry filling his mind as he stepped forward, calling out to his wife. "Cadance!" A pink aura covered his horn as he began to gallop into the fight.

Princess Celestia quickly rushed in from of him and held him back with one of her forelegs. Before he could ask why, she spoke with a serious tone, "Shining Armor, you mustn't interfere; this is Cadance and Eris's battle."

"But she needs my help!"

"You're too injured to go back to the fight, and besides," she paused and began smirking softly, "I'm sure she can handle it." She looked into the prince's eyes and gave him a nod, "Trust me."

Shining Armor sighed softly and nodded before looking back to his wife worriedly.

Cadance spread her wings as she flew uncontrollably through the air in attempt to gain her balance and get right back into the fight. Succeeding, she quickly turned around and landed on her hooves as she looked back to Eris. Shaking off the pain from the last attack, she let a battle-ready smirk cross her face, "Is that all you got?"

Eris pointed at the ground and fired a small beam of energy formed into a pool of darkness – almost like a portal. "No; I actually have something else in store for you, princess!" She replied to the princess as the pool began to emit a thick, black smoke.

Trying her best to wave it from her face, Cadance coughed and backed away, wondering what trick the Goddess of Chaos used this time. As the smoke cleared up, the pink alicorn widened her eyes with pure awe at what she saw, "Chrysalis?" Then, her expression turned to a deathly stare, "How'd you get here?"

The Changeling Queen chuckled softly as she took slow steps toward the princess, "Never mind that! How have you been, my dear? It's been much too long!"

"Enough!" Cadance demanded as she stomped a hoof on the ground. "If you're here to fight me, then let's do it; I have no time for games!"

With an evil grin, Chrysalis shrugged, "Oh, well; I was trying to give you a little more time to live." She began flapping her wings rapidly, a green aura covering her horn as she hovered into the air. "But if you insist…" Suddenly, she launched forward with her multi-voiced battle cry and fired a magical blast from her horn.

Walking away from the Changeling Queen and Crystal Princess, Eris turned to the group of ponies and stared directly at Twilight, "Now that _she_'_s _busy, let's have our little battle, Twilight Sparkle."

"Hey! You brought Chrysalis here because you knew Princess Cadance would beat you!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed angrily as she pointed an accusing hoof at the Goddess of Chaos.

"What?!" Eris yelled back, "Listen here, you little brat; I do what I want and there's no one else who can stop me, so before you go around pointing hooves at –"

Applejack cut her off, laughing heartily, "Haha! Eris is a scaredy cat!"

"She _is_ acting much like a coward, isn't she?" Rarity giggled.

Suddenly, Eris snapped her fingers and all three of the ponies' mouths disappeared. Rarity looked down at her mouth and fainted; that was just too extreme for her. Applejack sighed and stared to the ground, saying her long line of muffled words of anger. Rainbow Dash folded her forelegs and slowly lowered herself back into the small crowd with anger filled eyes, one thought ricocheting in her head, "_She's going to pay for that…"_

"That'll keep you quiet," Eris said with a low, satisfied growl.

"Eris, leave them out of this!" Twilight said as she stepped forward. "I'll fight you!"

Celestia quickly trotted right behind her student and spoke with a low, worried tone, "Twilight, are you sure -"

"Princess," She cut the elder princess off and turned to her, "Ever since the first day you've told me to make some friends, I have been watching other ponies take risks for me! I know that's what friends do, but sometimes, it makes me feel a bit useless. All I've been doing is coming up with plans that never work! I understand that you are all my friends, and you want me to be safe, but I feel the same way about you… So please, let me -"

Her miniature speech was cut short from the rough shove Nightfall had given her. As the princess tumbled across the ground, she used her magic to stop herself and looked to the colt with a hurt expression, "N-Nightfall?"

Before he could say a word to explain himself, his body was thrown to the ground by a giant magical blast Eris originally threw at Twilight.

Everypony looked to her with disgusted expressions, in which she returned with an 'innocent', "My hand slipped." She softly giggled and shrugged. "Sorry?"

Twilight quickly stood onto her hooves and galloped to the colt, tears filling her eyes instantly. "Nightfall!"

"Don't worry about me! Go and…" He stopped and coughed violently few times before continuing, "Take down Eris. Defeat her! You have to…"

"Y-You'll, be okay, right?" The young princess asked worriedly, unable to hold back the tears that now rolled down her cheeks.

Nightfall slowly nodded, honestly not knowing if he would be or not. It sure didn't feel like it. "Yeah, I'll be fine… But that doesn't matter right now; you have friends to save. You have a country to save."

Eris suddenly spoke as she took a step toward them, a confused expression on her face, "Wait, wait, wait; I just want to ask you one question before you perish, colt… Why would you jump into the way of a life-threatening attack for her, even if you knew it would cost you your own?"

Twilight growled lowly and turned to the Goddess of Chaos, her horn instantly shining bright with its pink aura. She was going to attack, but before she did, Nightfall stopped her. "Wait!" She looked down to him with quizzical expression as her magic died out, but he paid no attention to that. "Eris," he said weakly, "I jumped into the way of that attack because I feel something for her you obviously have never felt toward anyone."

He stood to his hooves and nearly tipped over, but he held his own. Looking into the eyes of the Goddess of Chaos, he finished his sentence, "I took that blast for Twilight… Because I love her!"

Everypony gasped as the colt as he fell over. Luckily, right before he hit the ground, Rainbow Dash swooped by and caught him, carrying him into the air. She flew right back into the small crowd and gently placed him on the concrete. Looking to the burn mark on his coat and the small amount of motion his body was giving, Rainbow Dash mumbled loudly, but nopony could understand what she said – she didn't have a mouth.

It didn't take long for Princess Celestia to realize that the light blue pegasus was saying that Nightfall needed some serious help. She gave a nod to Twilight and rushed back to the colt, speaking back to Rainbow Dash, "I'll see what I can do."

"Huh, I didn't know I powered the attack that much," Eris said 'obliviously'.

"Eris!" Twilight yelled as she switched her gaze from Celestia and to the Goddess of Chaos. In her peripheral vision, she saw Cadance and Chrysalis exchanging blows and realized what she had to do. "Tell Chrysalis to leave; I want this just to be one-on-one. No tricks or side-battles. Just _us._"

"Oh? Are you finally standing up to the challenge?" Eris asked, her dark red eyes growing wide with a sick joy; she finally got to fight the princess she initially wanted Blackheart to defeat first, but now that things were in her hands, it was her choice.

Twilight stood in her battle stance and narrowed her eyes, "Call it what you want, but just leave my friends out of it. Give the others their mouths back and I'll fight you."

With haste, the Goddess of Chaos aimed her hand at Chrysalis and held her captive with her magic, receiving a confused stare from both the Changeling Queen and the Crystal Princess. "What are you doing, Eris?! I'm in the middle of something!" She yelled angrily.

"I know, Changeling, but your services are no longer required," she replied blandly. "I'm sending you home now." Before she could refuse to give up her chance in defeating Cadance, Eris launched the Changeling Queen threw the air and far from the Crystal Empire. It soon grew silent as the Goddess of Chaos smirked and turned back to Twilight, "Just like taking candy from a baby."

"And?" Twilight said as she gestured to Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash.

"Ugh, fine," Eris said lazily as she snapped her fingers, restoring the three ponies' mouths. The first to react was Rarity, who was laying in Pinkie Pie's lap, being fanned by her hooves. The white unicorn opened her eyes gleefully as she placed her hooves on her mouth and squealed with joy, not one real word coming out of her mouth.

Applejack hopped onto her hooves happily and looked to the lavender alicorn, tipping her hat, "Thanks, Twi."

Standing over Nightfall, Rainbow Dash felt her mouth appear on her face again, causing her to smirk. Seeing that Princess Celestia needed assistance with helping the colt recover, she held back the urge to fly off and holler in happiness; one whole minute without her mouth was absolutely dreadful. Now she could understand how Pinkie Pie felt when Trixie had come to Ponyville that one time. The light blue pegasus whispered enthusiastically to herself, "Yes!"

"There. Happy?" Eris spoke with an attitude as she stared Twilight in the eyes.

Twilight nodded and gave a soft smirk, "Very."

"Good, now let's get to the fun part," the Goddess of Chaos said viciously as she stood in her battle stance. She growled lowly and bared her teeth, which were a contrastingly bright white against her black coat.

With a pink aura surrounding her horn, the young princess replied as she readied herself for the battle of her life. "Let's." Her aura grew brighter and brighter as her attack got ready to fire until –

"Wait!" Eris said as she 'defenselessly' raised both of her hands.

"What is it?" Twilight asked with gritted teeth, her horn still growing bright.

"Before I defeat you," she began arrogantly, "I'd like to let your little friends know that if they feel like coming and taking a fall for you – despite the colt's example – you're more than welcome to."

Bouncing above the others, Pinkie Pie yelled back at the Goddess of Chaos as she floated in mid-air, "We're not going to need to come in to help Twilight, because she's going to beat your meanie rump lickety-split!

"Sure, whatever," she blandly replied as she turned back to Twilight with an evil grin. "Are you ready princess?"

Twilight said nothing and narrowed her eyes, concentrating on the spell she was getting ready to use.

"I guess **_so!_**" Eris put emphasis on her final word as she abruptly launched a large ball of magical fire at the small alicorn. As the fire slammed against the ground with devastating force, debris flew into the air and spread across the town square. With a smirk, the Goddess of Chaos called into the screen of smoke, "Was that a bit too much for you, Twilight?"

"No; you're just too predictable," she said with a small grin crossing her face as she appeared behind Eris.

Her eyes went wide as she heard the princess's voice behind her. Quickly, she turned around and swung her right claw at Twilight, yelling angrily, "Take this!"

Before she could feel the pain of being harmed by Eris's attack, Twilight used her teleportation spell to dodge it. With a blinding flash of light, she was gone.

Quickly recovering from Twilight's spell, Eris twisted around and growled loudly, "You can't run forever, filly!" She turned to where the princess reappeared and fired another magical blast, but this time, it shined a light blue color, for it was built up off the element of ice.

Like before, Twilight disappeared before the ball of freezing magic could affect her, a blinding light shining across the town square once more.

The ball splattered on the ground and turned the concrete within an immediate into ice. Eris looked away from the princess's former position and looked around ambitiously. She looked behind her and found nothing. She checked left. No Twilight. She looked right. Still, she couldn't find Twilight. Gritting her teeth, she balled her hands into fists and blew steam out of her nose in frustration.

Suddenly, she looked at the ground, where there was the shadow of the alicorn with her wings spread wide. With a gasp, she looked into the sky, where Twilight gently flapped her wings and floated above Eris, right beneath the blood red sun.

Far below the flying princess, Rainbow Dash hopped into the air and threw her hoof up; completely elated that Twilight was flying. She truly had a new flying buddy now, but that was beside the point. From Rainbow's point of view, not only did she look heroic, but she looked absolutely awesome. "Yeah! You got this Twilight!"

A few more cheers came from the group of friends as Twilight powered her attack, but she heard a distinctive voice from somepony she'd always remember. "You can do it, Twily!" She smiled softly to herself and recognized Shining Armor's voice.

"_I won't let you guys down,_" she thought to herself as she flapped her wings once with a massive force, launching herself downward – right toward Eris. Flying down toward the Goddess of Chaos with speeds not too far from Rainbow Dash's, Twilight's magical aura began to surround her head as a cone shape in front of her.

As her jaw dropped dramatically, Rainbow stared intently at the princess, confusion riddling her face. "Is she going to…" Her sentence died off as she watched the one pony she knew as an egghead transform into an awesome hero right before her eyes.

With the exact cone formation surrounding her, Twilight's magic resembled Rainbow Dash's famous Sonic Rainboom, but this was much more… Purple. It wasn't long until the moment everypony was waiting for arrived, and it literally blew them away.

The cone disappeared as a wave of magic spread across the sky and Twilight officially broke the sound barrier. With wind blowing hard against her face, the small alicorn spread her wings and began to slowly change course from nose-diving right into Eris to flying amazingly fast above her.

Rainbow Dash whispered with a smirk as she watched Twilight reach speeds she thought only she could reach, "Hah… Twilight's own Sonic Boom, huh?"

When Twilight had gotten blurred sights on the Goddess of Chaos, she fired her magical blast from her horn and swooped slightly upward, slowing herself down. Panting, she looked back to Eris, who was flying back in pain from the powerful attack the princess threw at her. Smoke spread across the town square as the ground shook and a booming explosion from Twilight's Sonic Boom deafened everypony. With a triumphant smile, she began to slow even more, flapping her wings a few times as she gently landed on the ground.

As the sound of wind roughly blowing in her ears went away, she could hear her friends calling out to her with inspirational cheers. She blushed in slight embarrassment as she looked over to the group of ponies, who were throwing their hooves in the air happily.

"That's what ah'm talkin' 'bout! Get 'er Twilight!" Applejack enthusiastically yelled as she threw her hat into the air.

Pinkie Pie screamed loudly as she hopped into the air, wearing a shirt with Twilight's face on it, "GO TWILIGHT!"

"Teach that mongrel a lesson, dear!" Rarity called out.

Suddenly, a wave of weeping cut off the cheers, causing everypony to looked to the only draconequus who could've made the noise. Discord blew his nose as he sobbed, tears of joy rolling down his cheeks, "Oh, this is just beautiful! You go, Twilight! I'm so proud of you!"

Twilight began giggling slightly as she looked at Discord, who was waving to her with his handkerchief. Looking forward, the princess realized that she had a job to finish, and that was proven by a soft, feminine groan that came from the cloud of smoke. "Eris," Twilight whispered angrily, a soft fire burning in her eyes.

Using her magic to clear the smoke, the princess laid eyes on Eris, who was kneeling on the concrete, bruises and scratches covering her entire body. She had lost her former form, so she looked exactly how she was when she first arrived to Equestria, but a little more… defeated. Slowly trotting toward her, she spoke lowly with a serious tone, "I hope you understand why you've been defeated, Eris…"

"Is it because you're better than me in every way?" The Goddess of Chaos asked sadly, tears building up in her emerald green eyes.

Twilight tilted her head to the left slightly; why would she say something like that? "What?"

"You heard me! I'm nothing! I was just all talk!" Eris looked at the ground and forced herself not to sob. "I'm a failure…"

Instantly, the princess stepped beside her and placed a hoof on her shoulder, "No you're not Eris… Everyone has had their bad times, but there can always be a friend who gets you through them." She smiled softly as she tried to raise the draconequus's spirits. Then, something sparked in her head; maybe she could reform her.

"Friends? I have none," she simply said.

"Well, maybe… I could…" Slowly, Twilight looked back to her friends, who all shook their heads quickly. Discord even raised a poster that said, "**She's a spirit of chaos! She's the Goddess of Chaos, for pony's sake! Do NOT trust her!" **

Unfortunately, Twilight couldn't help it. She finished her sentence and spoke with a smile, "Maybe I could be your friend."

"You know Twilight…" Eris began to look up to her with a half-smirk, "You should really listen to your friends."

"What?" Twilight was utterly confused as the Goddess of Chaos said this; what did it mean? Was she tricking her? Well, that'd be no surprise.

"I'm the Goddess of Chaos, dear; there is no reforming me. You shouldn't be so forgiving next time," she said with an evil smirk. Suddenly, she placed a finger on her mouth and acted as if she forgot something. "Oh wait! There won't be a next time."

Before the small alicorn could move a muscle, Eris had already stood on her feet and let her right arm change back into its former black-furred state. With a ball of magic in her hand, she threw it forward – right into Twilight's chest.

The princess closed her eyes tightly in pain as she felt the magical blast push against her and launch her into the air. "Ah!"

Her friends called after her as they watched her get thrown to the ground, worry trailing across all of their faces. "Twilight!"

Slowly standing onto her hooves, the lavender alicorn looked up to Eris with half-open eyes, gritting her teeth in pain. The Goddess of Chaos smirked as the black aura covered her body again, returning her to her previous form. She was faking defeat the entire time. "Hah! Now can you see? Your defeat was inevitable, princess, despite all of your attempts of survival! I have won!"

"No," Twilight said wearily, a faded pink aura covering her horn once more. She opened her eyes wide as she fired her attack from her horn, yelling as she did so. "You haven't!"

Eris scoffed and simply smacked away the shining ball of magic, leaving the princess with a look of disappointment. "What, did you really think _that_ would take me down?" Twilight stayed silent as she looked to the ground, her magical aura fading away. "Face it, filly, I've won… And you've lost."

"No…" Twilight said with tears in her eyes. She couldn't lose! She just couldn't!

"Yes," the Goddess of Chaos replied with an evil grin as she aimed her hand at the princess, a large black, electric ball of energy growing in her palm. Her heart began to pound harder as the joy of finally defeating Equestria's final hope filled her mind. With ease, she fired the blast as she began to chuckle softly. It was finally over.

Everypony watched with wide eyes full of hopelessness as blocks of concrete flew into the air. As the screen of smoke began to rise into the air, Eris heard a loud 'bang' behind her. Still chuckling, she turned around and aimed her hand at Twilight, who had just used her teleportation spell to dodge her attack, "And you say _I'm _predictable."

With that, she launched another blast of magic at the princess. This time, though, her success of harming Twilight was assured by the pained scream she let out as she dark magic threw her to the ground violently.

Eris turned around with a satisfied grin on her face as she turned to the others and spoke loudly, "It's all over, _ponies_," she spit the last word, proving her hatred for her enemies.

Behind the Goddess of Chaos, Twilight laid limply on the ground with her eyes shut tight, her mind racing from thought to thought as she realized that defeat was practically certain. Barely conscious, she began to speak inwardly. "_I can't believe it… For so long, I've saved Equestria from whatever threats and yet I can't stop Eris… Why can't I? Was this meant to be? I… I should've been able to stop this. I -" _Before she could let another depressing thought cloud her mind, a voice caught her attention.

"Get up, you egghead! We need you!" Rainbow Dash yelled angrily, trying to inspire Twilight in her own way; the friendly way wasn't working, so her coaching ways should do the trick.

Then, another friendly voice called after her, "Yes darling; Rainbow Dash is correct! You must defeat that _beast _of a lady once and for all!"

"_Rainbow Dash… Rarity…"_ Twilight inwardly called their names as she shuffled slightly on the ground. They were right; she had to get up!

"C'mon, Twi, you can do it! Ah know 'ya can!" Applejack took off her hat as she yelled as loud as she could to the downed alicorn.

The princess's ears twitched as she heard a voice she never thought she'd hear again. Nightfall weakly called after her, "Yeah… Show her what you can do, princess…"

Among hearing the colt's words, Twilight's wings began fluttering to life as her horn began to glow with a bright purple aura. She opened her eyes as a foreign power consumed her and brought her to her hooves. Her eyes went wide as she whispered to herself, "What in the world is going on?!" Sure, she'd been inspired before – but this was different. She never was launched in the air and given a mid-battle power boost by an unknown entity. It didn't take long for Twilight to realize that she could figure out where her power was coming from later; she had a country to save.

Eris turned around quickly as she felt the wind pick up around her, staring directly to Twilight, who was floating above the ground, her wings flapping gently. "Oh, so you've decided to give it another useless try to defeat me?"

"I _will _defeat you!" She replied with a multi-voiced tone as her eyes magically grew all white, her horn glowing brightly with a white aura as well. With no hesitation, Twilight pointed her horn at the Goddess of Chaos and fired a giant magical blast that violently shook the ground. As the earsplitting explosion echoed through the town square, the attack rushed through the air and directly to Eris, who held both her hands in front of her with a mischievous grin.

Everypony watched with wide eyes as Eris caught the other side of the blast, holding it in her hands with ease. Keeping her position with the devastatingly enormous attack pushing against her, the Goddess of Chaos yelled up to Twilight, laughing evilly. "I see you've still got a little juice in you, princess!" With that, she returned the attack with her own blast that evened out the clash between the pink and red magic.

Twilight said nothing back to her as she concentrated on her magic, thinking of nothing but the fate of Equestria to keep her pushing forward. Her large, pink blast of magic slammed aggressively against Eris's blood red magic, in which she created to finish off the princess once and for all. The ground shook rapidly and the wind howled as the clashing magic began to grow stronger, twisting the clouds above with great speeds.

It was soon clear that Eris still had the upper hand against Twilight, for her blast was pushing the princess's attack right back at her. If she kept it up, she would've won for sure. Seeing this, the Goddess of Chaos taunted the princess, "See?! You still stand no chance against me!"

Back in the crowd of ponies, Rainbow Dash pushed against the rough winds and slowly flew forward. "I'm going to help her! I have to!"

Suddenly, Rarity grabbed her tail and pulled the blue pegasus back to the ground. "Wait! Twilight said that she wanted to fight Eris _on her own!_ We can't interrupt, Rainbow Dash!"

She turned back and yelled over the loud winds, pointing to the giant blasts of magic clashing against each other. "I'm not leaving Twilight out there! I don't know about you guys; but I'm loyal to my friends, and I will not leave her behind! Besides; Eris gave us the all-clear!" Rainbow turned away and dashed to Twilight's side before Rarity could say anything else.

Overhearing what the blue pegasus said before she flew off, Applejack grinned and threw her hat to the side, "She's right! Ah ain't leavin' Twilight; no way, no how!" With that, the orange earth pony galloped into battle, determination sparking in her emerald green eyes.

Following right behind Applejack, Pinkie Pie bounced to Twilight's aid, wearing a military helmet and black tape on her cheeks. "Ooraaaah!"

Rarity watched her friends rush out to battle and blinked a few times, wondering what she should do. Feeling a tap on her back, she looked backward, right to Princess Celestia. The princess softly smiled and gestured to the others, "I think they'll need you out there."

"Of course, princess," she replied sheepishly giggled as she nodded and turned to her friends. With a smirk, she readied her horn for some serious magic use and galloped to assist her friends.

* * *

Rainbow Dash smirked as she zipped beside Twilight, "Looks like you need some help, egghead."

Snapping out of her former state, the lavender alicorn looked over to the blue pegasus and blinked in confusion. "Rainbow Dash?"

"I'm here to help you!"

"How? You can't use magic; you don't have a horn!"

Rainbow Dash looked down to her necklace and raised it in the air with her hooves in reply to Twilight's question. "No, but I do have this!" As if on cue, the pendant that resembled her Cutie Mark found on her necklace began glowing and shot a blinding beam of magic that added onto the princess's blast. She gave her an assuring nod and closed her eyes, trying her best to concentrate on using her own power to help Twilight take down Eris.

Standing ahead of the two, Eris scoffed as she spotted the other Elements of Harmony run to Twilight's aid. "Joining your friend isn't going to help you!" She actually seemed to be right, for her magical blast was still advancing on Twilight's – despite Rainbow Dash's assistance.

Twilight looked beneath her, where Applejack stopped hurriedly. The orange pony looked up to her and gave her a wink before her necklace rose up on its own, catching her attention. Just like Rainbow's element, Applejack's glowed brightly and added on to Twilight's massive attack with its own small beam of magic.

"_All this time,_" Twilight thought as she watched Pinkie Pie bounce right beside Applejack. "_I thought that fighting Eris alone would let me beat her… That my anger would help me win…" _She softly grinned as she then saw Rarity 'fabulously' trot her way next to the others, her necklace working just like the others. "_But I was wrong. My friends will help me defeat Eris, and now that I know that; it's time for us to save Equestria!" _Twilight closed her eyes and prepared to use the power of the Elements of Harmony. A bright light surrounded the five ponies – and that's when she realized that something was wrong. With wide eyes, she gasped and whispered her friend's name, "Fluttershy!"

Suddenly, Eris's magical blast began pushing against Twilight's faster and faster as the alicorn began to lose hope in winning the fight. Without Fluttershy, the Elements of Harmony wouldn't work, and without the Elements of Harmony… Equestria was doomed.

The Goddess of Chaos put her all in her attack as it neared her enemies, an evil satisfaction filling her tone, "Hahaha! Not only will I destroy that wretched princess; I'll destroy the Elements of Harmony as well!"

As her magic began to fade out, Twilight looked to the ground hopelessly, receiving a bizarre expression from Rainbow Dash. "Twi? What are you doing?!"

"We don't have Fluttershy," she softly replied as her horn's aura began to fade away, bringing Eris's victory closer than ever. "Without her, our magic won't work..." With tear-filled eyes, she looked back to Rainbow and said sadly, "We can't win."

Before the light blue pegasus could reply to her nearly hopeless friend, Fluttershy flew beside Twilight and asked 'softly' over the rough winds and the ground's rumbling, "Why can't you?"

Suddenly, Twilight's expression changed dramatically as she turned around to the yellow pegasus with a giant smile, "Fluttershy!"

"I'm sorry for being so late, I was –"

"Never mind that; just use your element and help us finish this fight!" Twilight yelled as she looked back to Eris and put her all in the attack once more, her horn shining bright with its aura. Fluttershy's element added onto the magical blast that practically decided the fate of Equestria, strengthening it to powers never seen before.

Closing her eyes, the princess looked deep inside and found the exact power that defeated Nightmare Moon, Discord, and even gave her the gift of transforming into an alicorn. She looked inside and found the Element of Magic. Twilight opened her eyes as the magical blast shined with a blinding light and pushed back against Eris's own magic easily.

Noticing the sudden gain in power the six ponies had, Eris felt her feet slide involuntarily backwards on the ground as the Elements of Harmony's attack pushed against her with a mind-boggling force. With wide eyes full of awe, the Goddess of Chaos stared to them and asked, "H-How are you doing this?! What kind of illusion is this?! St-Stop it!"

The giant blast didn't slow down as it easily pushed against the Goddess of Chaos's defense and slammed right into her. A massive gust of wind tossed everypony in the town square to the ground as a devastatingly bright light blinded them all. Right after, a deafening explosion shook the ground violently, launching debris into the air and toppling buildings with ease. As the miniature earthquake shook the Crystal Empire, a giant cloud of dust and smoke kicked into the air and blotted out the sky, leaving the ground in darkness.

* * *

The sound of rocks and pebbles tapping against the ground gently brought Twilight from her state of unconsciousness. She calmly lay there, right beside her best friends, staring into the sky, which was nearly covered by a thick, black smoke. As she relived everything that just happened in her mind, her heart skipped a beat as she sat up and looked around, whispering. "I have to stop Eris!"

She quickly hopped to her hooves and looked around, ignoring the throbbing pain in her head. Honestly, she was tired, but she had no time to rest; Equestria was still in danger. As she looked around, she found nothing but ruins and cracks scaling the concrete ground underneath her. It was unnaturally silent as she cautiously stepped through thick smoke, her purple eyes intently searching for the Goddess of Chaos.

Her ears perked at the sound of a pained groan, causing her to turn quickly and aim her horn at the area where the sound came from. "Who's there?!" Gritting her teeth, she squinted, trying her best to get a good sight on who was in the distance. After waiting for a reply and hearing nothing, Twilight huffed angrily and used her magic to clear the smoke from the town square, revealing all of her unconscious friends who were thrown around by the explosion, but most importantly - Eris.

Her black aura had faded away, leaving the normal-sized draconequus standing wearily ahead of Twilight. Eris stumbled slightly to the right and held her side in pain, looking up to the lavender alicorn with a disgusted face, "Wh-What are you? You're no normal pony!" Taking slow, feeble steps away from her, the Goddess of Chaos showed something that Twilight never thought she'd see in her eyes. Fear.

Twilight smirked and took some steps forward, seeing that the Elements of Harmony had worked and that Eris was facing inevitable defeat. "You're right… I'm no normal pony; I'm the Element of Magic."

"How did you do this?! I… I am the Goddess of Chaos! I am the strongest there is!" Still backing away from Twilight, she yelled with fury.

"Alone – you may be. But what you don't realize…" Twilight paused as she heard hoofsteps coming right behind her. It was Rainbow Dash.

The light blue pegasus gave off an arrogant smirk and wrapped her foreleg around Twilight's neck as she finished her sentence. "… Is that even though one person may be strong…"

As if on cue, Applejack trotted alongside her friends, a victorious grin crossing her face, "… A group of friends will always be stronger."

Eris shook her head and stumbled backward, shaking her head in disbelief rapidly. "No! This is impossible!"

"Well, actually; it _is _possible. I mean, it's happening right now so… It's possible!" Pinkie Pie popped up from behind the Goddess of Chaos and smiled brightly at her. "C'mon Eris, you should know that!" The pink earth pony giggled innocently as she looked at the terrified look on the draconequus's face.

Stumbling onto the ground, Eris began scooting away from the ponies, "S-Stay away from me!" She soon ran her back into Rarity, who stood right behind her with a mischievous grin as she cleared her throat. Letting out a small yelp, the Goddess of Chaos hopped to her feet and rushed in the opposite direction of the white unicorn; she had to get away from them.

It wasn't long until she ran into the small, feeble pegasus, nearly tripping over her as she stopped. Looking down to Fluttershy, she simply stared with wide eyes.

She looked to the ground and blushed with embarrassment as she softly spoke, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to –"

The other Elements of Harmony stared at her with disbelief and yelled to her angrily, "Fluttershy!"

She blinked and remembered what she had to do. "Oh! Right…" Nodding to the others, she then looked up to Eris and spoke, "You… Bad… Draconequus! I'll… Uhm…"

Standing beside the others, Rainbow Dash quickly placed a hoof on her face and shook her head, groaning in annoyance.

Before Fluttershy could finish her 'menacing' sentence to the Goddess of Chaos, another draconequus came into play. Discord suddenly appeared between the two with a bright flash and smiled warmly to the small pegasus, "Thank you, Fluttershy, but I'll take this from here."

Turning around to his sister, Discord smirked and folded his arms, staring deeply into his sister's eyes that were full of fear. "I think this is the part where you leave…"

Eris growled and began backing away from him, shaking her head quickly, "I'll be back… Just you ponies wait… I _will _be back! I will –"

"Suuure you will!" Pinkie Pie jokingly said as she nudged her gently in the side with her forearm.

With a growl, the Goddess of Chaos flapped her wings and took off, a long line of curses echoing through the sky as she fled away from the ponies.

Amongst watching Eris retreat, Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and prepared to follow the Goddess of Chaos, "What are you guys doing?! She's getting away!"

Instantly, Discord calmed the light blue pegasus with an assuring tone, "Don't worry, Rainbow Dash…" He paused and watched his injured sister fly off in the distance. Beginning to grin victoriously, he continued his sentence, "I have a strong feeling she won't be coming back anytime soon."

"So…We've won?" Twilight asked as she looked away from the Goddess of Chaos and to Discord, her eyes sparkling with hope.

"Yeah… We did it," Discord replied softly, his grin growing larger than before.

Pinkie Pie sat on the ground and rubbed her chin with one of her hooves as a light bulb appeared over her head, "I think I know what we should do…"

"Pinkie, if it has _anything _to do with a party, can it please wait? I'm exhausted!" Rarity dramatically leaned against Applejack, who caught her with an annoyed expression.

With a sigh, the pink earth pony frowned and folded her forelegs. "Fine…"

Suddenly, a familiar voice called after Twilight. "Twily!"

Turning to where she heard her brother, the princess ran right into Shining Armor, wrapping her forelegs around him. "Shining Armor!"

Pulling away from the embrace, the prince looked down to his younger sister and smiled proudly, "I'm proud of you kiddo…" He ruffled her hair with his hoof and chuckled softly.

She shook his hoof out of her head and giggled in return, "Thanks…"

"Well, what do we do now?" Cadance asked as she joined the group of ponies, looking around to the town square of her destroyed empire.

Celestia then entered the conversation, catching the attention of everypony near, "We recover… And maybe we could have a party - as Pinkie Pie suggested - afterward." She grinned softly as she saw the happiness build up in the earth pony's face.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to a party," Nightfall said with a smirk as she limped to the group.

Twilight's heart skipped a beat as she heard his voice. She instantly rushed over to the colt and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his neck. Saying nothing, she hugged him tight and seemed like she'd never let go.

Fighting the sharp pain that shot through his body, Nightfall smiled as well and closed his eyes, hugging her back.

Everypony looked to the two and let out a long, affectionate, 'Aww' as the two hugged; even Celestia had to admit that it was pretty cute. Shining Armor smiled as he saw the two and wrapped his foreleg around Cadance, whispering to her, "They remind me of us when we started dating."

The pink alicorn blushed and leaned into her husband and nodded, "Yeah…"

As the smoke from the battle rose from the ground and faded away, the wind grew weak and blew gentle breezes against the ponies, calming them. It was exactly what they needed… Besides; they _did _just fight off the biggest threat in Equestrian history.

"Twilight!" A light, tired voice called after the princess, "I'm here… To help!" Spike exclaimed as he rushed into the town square.

Pulling away from Nightfall, the lavender alicorn looked to her assistant and raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Spike? When did you get here?"

"I was here…When Princess Celestia arrived… But…"

Another high-pitched voice cut off the panting dragon's sentence, "When we got here, we saw a big 'boom', and Spike thought it'd be a good idea to let the princess go and fight while we found our way here. He_ 'knew the way'_," Dawn mocked him with an annoyed expression.

Spike blushed slightly in embarrassment as the filly told the absolute truth.

"Long story short," Princess Luna continued with the story as she stepped closer to the group of friends, Dawn lying on her back comfortably. "After I inspired Fluttershy to assist you all, I prepared to leave, but before I went off, I saw Spike and Dawn trailing the streets aimlessly. I decided to take care of them until we got here."

Suddenly, Dawn hopped off of Luna's back and zipped over to her brother eagerly. She launched into the air and landed on top of his head, hugging his horn happily. "Brother!"

Once more, Nightfall ignored the pain he was given and smiled softly. "I missed you too…"

Before anypony else could say another word, a pained groan came from the only limp body in the town square. As the group looked to the black-coated stallion, they all asked in unison, "Blackheart?"

* * *

**BOOM! Oh. My. Gosh. I tossed aside SO much sleep for this! I hope you guys enjoyed – no… LOVED – this chapter. Review if you did, and if you didn't (that'd break my heart :c), tell me where I messed up. I want to thank you ALL for helping me out here and allowing me to write this 7,343-word chapter for you guys! If you're wondering about the ending of this chapter; I'm going to let you know that there will be an epilogue, so you've got one more chapter to tune in for until I wrap up this story for good. **

** Aren't you guys happy?! x3 I am. Well, until next time… I'll see you guys for the FINAL chapter of A Change of Heart. Once again, thank you. – FrozenAgent47.**


	15. Love is Magic - Epilogue

**And here we are, coming together for the final chapter of A Change of Heart. Before I get to the thanking, I'll let you all know that I'll commemorate everyone who supported me with reviews, follows, and/or favorites to this 4-month journey we've taken at the end of the chapter. Uhm… With nothing else to say, I give you the FINAL chapter of this story, and as always, I hope you enjoy it. c:**

* * *

Twilight sighed happily as she took an ink pen with her magic and placed it over a sheet of paper in her logbook.

"_ Dear Diary,_

_ It's been over a year since Eris was defeated, and things are finally starting to go back to normal. For the first few months, we had helped my brother and Princess Cadance rebuild the Crystal Empire, and then we went to Canterlot to fix the damage done by Blackheart's doings. Speaking of Blackheart; I'm surprised he's still standing! He gave up his life force to bring Cadance back and somehow survived – but barely. After Eris left (I can't believe we let her go), he was grew conscious and pained, and almost instantly, Princess Luna rushed to his side, saying that 'she hadn't done enough, so this was her chance to help somepony'. I believe her, but for some reason, I feel like it's more than that. Something… More special._

_Never mind that, though; I'm back in Ponyville now, and everything's actually pretty fine. Well, except the fact that Nightfall and his little sister left back to Darkadia to reunite with their family. They've been gone for about a month or so, and ever since then, I've been feeling as if something has been missing here… Lately –"_

Suddenly, Twilight's thoughts were thrown off by the sound of her trusty assistant calling for her. "Twilight!"

She looked up from her book and turned her head, speaking back to Spike, who was downstairs, "What is it, Spike?"

"Come look at what I did!"

Rolling her eyes with a soft grin on her face, the princess closed her book and put her pen down as she got off of her bed. Stepping down the stairs, Twilight's eyes caught a wide variety of colored streamers, balloons, and party decorations everywhere. She gasped in amazement with a bright smile, "Wow! Spike, you really did a good job on the decorations!"

Folding his arms, the not-so-'baby'-anymore dragon smirked arrogantly, "I know; I've learned a thing or two living with you." Spike was a little taller now, and his voice had gotten a _little _deeper than what it was a year ago. He was proud to say that he was a 'real dragon' now, despite the fact that he wasn't even near his full size.

After examining the entire room, Twilight was thoroughly impressed. Spike had done well with setting up the tables and the food, and not to mention he did it within a few hours. "Pinkie's going to love it!"

"For some reason, I don't think she's going to be surprised by this surprise party," he said doubtfully. "I mean, she _is_ the party master, you know…"

Twilight blinked and placed a hoof on her chin as she looked into the air, "Hm… You have a point there, Spike." She shook her head and tried to get the party-ruining thoughts out of her mind and shrugged, "But there's still a chance that she'll be surprised."

"How much of a chance though?" He asked.

"I don't know… Maybe I should work out an equation to -"

Twilight's sentence was cut short by the sound of knocking on the door. Quickly looking in that direction, she called to whoever was on the other side, "Just a second!" With that, she trotted over to the door with a small smile on her face.

Spike turned around, sat on one of the chairs he set up and waited for the fun to start, his legs kicking gently in the air. It was actually surprising that his feet couldn't reach the floor yet.

As Twilight opened the door, she gasped and instantly jumped forward with a squeal, "Shining Armor!" She wrapped her forelegs around her brother and giggled joyfully.

"Twily!" He hugged her back and smiled down to his sister he hadn't seen in months, "You've been getting big, kiddo!" He ruffled her mane with his hoof as he said that.

"Shining Armor," she embarrassingly said, shaking his hoof out of her mane. "I'm older now!"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you'll stop being my little sister," he said with a smirk as he stepped past her, going over to talk to Spike.

Watching him walk past, she rolled her eyes as she looked back to the door, only to gasp again in surprise. "Cadance!"

"Twilight!" The pink alicorn happily greeted her sister-in-law, a bright smile spreading across her face.

Almost instantly, the both of them began to do their little dance routine and recite their chant they'd known for years. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake – clap your hooves and do a little shake!" Both princesses burst into a fit of soft laughter as they stood straight, happiness sparkling in their eyes.

Cadance hugged Twilight afterward and spoke, "How've you been?"

Pulling away from the embrace, the younger princess allowed Cadance to come in before closing the door with her magic. "I've been fine, actually, but for some reason, I feel like something's been missing…"

"Yeah, she keeps on talking about that Nightfall guy; I think she's in _love_," Spike mockingly said from behind Twilight.

Instantly, her face grew a bright red as she turned around and barked angrily at Spike, "Spike! What did I -"

"It's alright, Twilight." Cadance laughed softly at Twilight's embarrassment; it was cute. She could remember when she used to feel like that about Shining Armor. "I know how you feel about him; it's okay. There's nothing to be embarrassed about!"

Still blushing, the younger princess nodded, "Okay…" Then, she remembered that she was still writing something in her logbook; she couldn't just leave it unfinished – that was unlike her! Plus, it would be a good escape from the awkward situation she was trapped in. Twilight blinked and began backing away from the others, sheepishly smiling as she spoke quickly, "I almost forgot; I was working on something before you two arrived. It was great seeing you again and I hope you enjoy the party. Spike, answer the door if anypony comes!" With that, she turned around and rushed upstairs to her room.

Cadance had a confused look on her face as she looked to Spike, "What was that all about?"

"I have no idea," Spike shrugged as he watched Twilight make her way up the stairs. "It's probably nothing big, though; you know Twilight…"

* * *

Time passed rather quickly as Twilight kept to herself up in her room, the sound of chatter gradually increasing as time went on. It was until about an hour or so when she started to feel her log was coming to an end – for that day, at least. As she neared the end of her log, a friendly voice called to her, throwing off her train of thought.

"Heya, Twilight!" Applejack exclaimed happily as she stepped into the lavender alicorn's room. "Everypony was downstairs waitin' for Pinkie and ah didn't see 'ya. Spike told me that you were up here all alone."

Closing her logbook with haste, Twilight blushed and laughed sheepishly, "Heeeyy, Applejack!" She sloppily slid the book behind her and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof.

The orange earth pony blinked slightly and tilted her head, "Are you feelin' okay, Sugar Cube?"

"Of course I am! Wh-Why would you ask that?" Twilight said suspiciously as she began gently pushing Applejack out of her room with her head.

Sliding across the floor, Applejack blandly spoke as she looked back to Twilight. "It's about Nightfall, ain't it?"

Instantly, the princess stopped and sighed, looking to the ground. "I just don't know what to do, Applejack; ever since he left I just felt like something was missing…"

"Well, ah don't see why 'yer stayin' up here if 'yer missin' him so much; he's downstairs right now!"

Twilight looked up and stared in her friend's eyes, joy sparking in her own. Grabbing the orange pony's cheeks and squeezing them together, she nearly screamed. "He's _what?!_"

"He's… Downstairs… Right now," Applejack mumbled slowly, oblivious as to why Twilight was acting like that. She never knew what it was like to fall in love with a colt before, though, so she had no idea.

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Letting go of her, Twilight began to rush to the door until she stopped by a mirror, seeing that a singular strand of her hair was out of place. Instantly, she began to throw a fit, taking a comb with her magic and running it quickly through her mane. She was absolutely determined to get everything just right for him.

"Twi, you don't need to fret; he already –"

"If he sees my hair like this, he won't even want to talk to me anymore!"

"Don't think like that, ah'm sure -"

"What if he thinks I'm weird?!"

"_Ah'm tempted to think that right about now," _Applejack thought. Stepping beside the princess, she grabbed the comb and pulled it away from Twilight's hair. She looked into the lavender alicorn's eyes and spoke with a stern tone. "Twilight! 'Yer talkin' nonsense now! Nightfall ain't gonna think of 'ya in no different way once 'ya walk down those stairs; 'yer beautiful."

Twilight gasped softly as she heard Applejack say those words. Before she could reply, the orange pony added a little more to what she was saying, "A little different, sure, but 'yer a great pony, and it's great to have 'ya as a friend. Ah'm sure Nightfall feels the same way."

After realizing that she went a little overboard with her feelings just then, the lavender alicorn apologized, "Sorry AJ, I just -"

"No need to worry about it, Sugar Cube… Now you get on down there and talk to that colt, will 'ya? He's been asking for 'ya ever since he got her!" Applejack accepted the apology and changed the subject instantly, stepping back to let Twilight head down stairs.

Twilight took a deep breath as she slowly trotted out of her room. Suddenly, she stopped and looked back to the orange pony, "Does my mane look -" She stopped when Applejack shot her a serious glare. "Right…" With that, she started walking forward again, preparing to see her love once again.

The sound of her hooves tapping against the stairs was drowned out by the sound of ponies conversing and soft techno music playing. A smile grew on her face as she looked around the library, familiar faces catching her eye. From what she could see, _everypony _was there! There was Rainbow Dash, Vinyl Scratch – better known as DJ Pon-3 -, even that one pony Twilight usually saw around Ponyville; Lyra Heartstrings or something? Not being able to pinpoint her name, she shrugged it off and soon found the pony she was originally looking for.

"Nightfall," Twilight joyfully whispered to herself, a tingling sensation building in her stomach. As she finally reached the bottom stair, she turned to the colt, who was sitting in a chair next to a table, bobbing his head gently to the music that played. After conjuring up as much confidence as she could, the princess trotted to him through the crowd of friendly ponies.

It wasn't long until the colt noticed the princess, and when he did, he hopped from his seat and trotted over to her as well, calling her name with joy. "Twilight! How've –"

Twilight cut his sentence short with a hug, wrapping her forelegs around him tightly. She closed her eyes and giggled softly, "I missed you."

Returning the hug, Nightfall replied happily, "I missed you too." Pulling away from the warm embrace, he looked into her eyes and asked, "How have you been, princess?"

Frowning slightly, she looked to the floor and shook her head softly, "Not too good…"

He reflected her expression, "What? Why not?"

"You weren't here," she said sadly as she looked back up to him.

Fighting off the blush the threatened to appear on his cheeks, Nightfall tried his best to look as 'cool' as he could. "No worries, though, I'm here."

"Great," Twilight said as a smile grew on her face. She then looked around and asked him, "Where's Dawn?"

"Oh, while we were on our way here, we had met three little fillies who called themselves the… Cutie Mark Catchers? No… That wasn't it…" He looked up at the ceiling with a puzzled expression and thought of the three fillies who happily greeted Dawn.

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders," she corrected him with a giggle.

He blinked and tilted his head, "You know them?"

"Yeah; there are four of them. Applebloom, Applejack's little sister; Babs Seed; Applebloom's cousin; Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister; and Scootaloo…" She paused then, not really knowing who the small pegasus was related too.

"That's the one with the scooter, right? Isn't that Rainbow Dash's little sister?" He asked. "I mean, she _does_ act like her."

She was about to reply with a simple 'no', but she thought of the relationship between the two. "Uhm… Yeah – something like that. So, what happened when you ran into them?"

"Well, they first ran up to Dawn and started rambling about their group, but soon the one named Scootaloo had taken the lead. She said something about their goal being to find their Cutie Marks and I tried to let them know that doing everything known to ponykind wasn't going to help them, but they said 'it's still a good way to find out what their good or bad at'."

"Trust me, they'll always find an excuse to trying everything to find their Cutie Mark," Twilight giggled.

"I see that," Nightfall chuckled before continuing with his story. "They told Dawn that they'd have 'awesome' adventures and that's where she lost her cool. She looked up to me and started begging if she could go with them to their clubhouse."

"What'd you say?" She asked curiously with a soft smile.

"Well, despite my brotherly worries and 'mean' – as Dawn calls it – way of thinking, I thought it'd be a good idea for her to meet some new friends to hang out with, especially since we're moving here.

Twilight's heart skipped a beat as her ears twitched multiple times. Was she hallucinating? There was only one way to find out. "Y-You're moving here?!"

Nightfall blinked, "Yeah… Is there a problem with that?"

Before Twilight could reply, a blur of rainbow-based colors zipped in between the two, catching the attention of them both. Rainbow Dash turned to Nightfall and spoke quickly, "Sorry, I need to borrow her for a second."

With a confused expression crossing his face, he replied slowly, "Okay…"

The light blue pegasus then turned to Twilight and pushed her across the floor until they were out of hearing range of Nightfall, who stood where he was, oblivious as of what to do. Annoyed, the princess asked Rainbow Dash, "What do you want, Rainbow Dash?"

"I need your help, Twilight," Dash replied in a soft whisper as she floated above the lavender alicorn.

Twilight smirked and raised an eyebrow, "Well, that's something new…"

"Shut up!" She blushed in embarrassment and looked away from the princess as she folded her forelegs.

"What is it?" The alicorn asked as she rolled her eyes.

Looking back to Twilight, she began on her story. "I can't find Fluttershy or Rarity anywhere and Pinkie's already on her way here!"

With a dull expression, the princess spoke. "Why don't you just go get them?"

"I need somepony to help me to get them; it'll be faster, duh."

"Can't you ask Applejack to go with you?"

"No, I need somepony with wings…Somepony fast!" Rainbow Dash zipped to the other end of the room and back quickly, showing off her speed.

Spreading her wings with insecurity, Twilight shook her head slightly, "I don't know, Rainbow… I'm still not really used to mine; I haven't used them a lot lately."

She then turned and pointed to Derpy Hooves, who was innocently holding a cupcake in her head. As the gray pegasus opened her mouth to eat it, a dancing pony bumped into her and knocked the cupcake onto the floor, causing her to frown sadly. "Why can't you ask her to go with you? Can't she fly fast?"

Rainbow Dash pressed her hoof against her face as she groaned, "No, Twilight… Derpy can't even fly _straight_."

"Fine, I guess I'll go," Twilight said with a sigh.

Instead of speaking happily, Rainbow did the exact opposite. "Well, what are you waiting for; get to it!" With that, the pegasus flapped her wings and zoomed across the room, her speed throwing the door open before she even touched it. "You get Rarity - I've got Fluttershy!"

Flapping her wings as well, Twilight unsteadily rose into the air and made her way out of the door as well. With sarcasm in her tone, she mumbled to herself as she left the library, "You got it, captain."

* * *

"Rarity, are you here?" Twilight asked, knocking on the door of the Carousel Boutique as she let her wings fold into her back. She gently tapped her hoof on the doorstep as she waited for an answer; it'd be an absolute shame if she struggled flying all the way there and Rarity wasn't home.

Suddenly, the door swung open, almost hitting the princess in the face as the white unicorn greeted her, "Oh, Twilight, do come in; I need require your assistance!" Before the alicorn could answer, she grabbed her and pulled her inside.

With a quick yelp, Twilight slid into the house/boutique and soon stood face-to-face with Rarity. "Yes, Rarity?"

After closing the door, the unicorn quickly galloped across the room and grabbed two dresses. The one on the left was a bright, sparkly scarlet while the one on the right was a soft, cyan blue. She held them in front of Twilight with her magic, "I can't choose which dress I should wear to the party!"

"It doesn't matter Rarity!" The princess exclaimed with an irritated tone; she wanted to get back to the party. She wanted to get back to Nightfall. "It's just a party!"

Rarity gasped overdramatically as she stared at Twilight with narrowed eyes, offended. "It _does_ matter! I must make myself presentable at such a gathering and this is nothing to be taken lightly!"

Twilight sighed loudly as she looked to the ground and shook her head. She knew if she kept trying to tell Rarity that it made no difference, it'd… Make no difference. The fashionista was stubborn in situations like these. Looking back up to her friend, she spoke once again, "Pinkie Pie's already on her way; by the time you choose something, she'll already be there!"

Rarity took in the given information and stared intently to the dress on her right, and then to her left. It didn't take long for her to sadly sigh and put them both away. "Fine, let's be off."

"Thank you," Twilight mumbled softly as she headed for the door. Before she could open it with her magic, though, she was stopped by the white unicorn's voice.

"Do you think I should bring my slippers? It'd be –"

The princess looked back to her and cut her off with a yell, "Rarity!"

"Right… Sorry," she giggled sheepishly as she followed behind Twilight.

* * *

By the time the two had arrived, they had barely dodged Pinkie Pie, who was happily bouncing her way through the streets of the unusually empty town. Upon entering the library, Rarity yelled over the music playing and the conversations ponies shared between each other. "Excuse me, everypony, may I have a word or two?"

DJ Pon-3 stopped the music and pulled her headphones down to her neck, looking to the white unicorn as well as everypony else. "Thank you," Rarity said with a soft smile. "Well, before I -"

Rainbow Dash suddenly flew through the open door with Fluttershy hanging helplessly on her foreleg with wide, fearful eyes. Rarity ducked quickly, barely dodging the two pegasi overhead. After nearly crashing into multiple ponies and shaking the yellow pegasus off of her foreleg, Rainbow yelled to everypony. "Pinkie Pie's almost here! Everypony, hide!"

Instantly, Twilight shut the door and rushed to the light switch, where she turned off the lights. As everypony hid in the darkness, multiple shushes quieted the whispers from eager ponies. "Shh, she's coming!" Somepony said. It grew creepily quiet as the pink earth pony stopped at the front door.

Innocently bouncing at the doorr, Pinkie knocked and spoke with a smile on her face, "Hellooo? Twilight? You said you wanted help with your books today, remember? Because I remember; you said, 'Pinkie, I need your help with my books – they're out of order and you're the only pony who's not busy'!" After receiving no response, the pink pony sighed and sat on the doorstep, waiting for somepony to answer.

Then, she realized that there was a note on the door that was written in purple ink. "_Pinkie ~ come on in, I'm helping Rarity with something for now; I'll be home soon."_ Pinkie Pie blinked a few times and tilted her head to the left slightly, "Huh, how did I not see that?" She bounced to her hooves and shrugged, a large grin growing on her face once more, "Oh well!"

Opening the door, she gazed innocently into the darkness, her blue eyes being the only things the hiding ponies could see. "Wow, it sure is dark in here…"

She reached behind her to grab her night-vision goggles, but before she could, everypony popped from their hidings spots, screaming one word in unison, "SURPRISE!" The lights turned on, revealing all of her friends with bright smiles on their faces.

Pinkie hopped into the air, letting out a high-pitched squeal as confetti burst from Celestia-knows-where. As the colored paper spread across the room, the pink pony landed safely and began giggling, "Whoa! I didn't know you guys were going to throw me a party!"

"We decided to throw you a surprise party since you wanted one… Don't you remember saying something about a party after we defeated Eris?" Spike asked with a soft smile as he stepped toward Pinkie Pie.

Waving a hoof at the dragon, she shook her head and giggled some more, "Of course I remember, silly! That's why I threw you guys a surprise party!"

"Wait…What?" Rainbow Dash asked with a quizzical expression on her face.

Applejack then stepped forward from the large crowd of confused ponies, "Ah don't remember you throwin' us any parties lately, Sugar Cube."

"SURPRISE!" Pinkie then abruptly jumped into the air and threw some more confetti everywhere. Landing on the floor with a soft tap, she began giggling again.

After wincing at the pink pony's sudden movements, Twilight began to laugh afterward, "Oh, Pinkie, you're so random!"

"It's my trademark," she said as she dropped onto the floor and burst into a fit of laughter, snorting a few times here and there.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes with a smirk as she rose into the air, pointing to DJ Pon-3. "Alright, let's get this party started! DJ hit the music!" The unicorn silently nodded with a smirk and used her magic to put a record on the turning tables. With that, techno music shook the house, officially starting the party.

A wave of party-hungry cheers came from the ponies as the music flooded their ears. It was party time.

* * *

It'd been hours since the party started, and 'fun' couldn't even describe half of the party. The sun had set not too long ago, so Twilight took this opportunity to do something she hadn't done in a long time. She was sitting on the balcony of the library with a soft smile, staring up at the sparkling stars and sighed happily; things weren't getting back to normal… They were getting _better. _The love of her life was moving to Ponyville, she was a well-respected princess, and better yet, she had her friends to stick by her side every step of the way from then on.

Then, she remembered something that wasn't so great; Princess Celestia and Luna weren't there. That was a bummer. Once more, she sighed, but this time a little more downtrodden.

Nightfall looked to her and asked with concern in his tone, "What's wrong?" He was sitting next to her, gazing at the stars with her, and when he heard her sigh, he knew that something was off.

"Oh, it's nothing," she started as she looked to him with a false smile. "I just was hoping that Princess Celestia and Luna could make it…"

"I was absent at your Crowning Celebration; there's nothing else I'd miss, Twilight." A familiar voice said from behind her.

Her smile grew sincere as she turned around and called to her teacher, "Princess Celestia!" She stood on her hooves and ran forward to hug the tall, white alicorn.

Embracing her student with joy, Celestia giggled softly, "How have you been, Twilight?"

She looked up into the magenta eyes of the alicorn and shrugged, "I've been okay. I haven't been doing much, really…" Celestia raised an eyebrow as a sense of worry filled her mind; had Twilight begun to slack off on her studies? Before she could ask, Twilight continued with her sentence, "If you don't include the late-night studies and journal reports on my magic abilities' progress..."

Sighing with relief, the elder princess nodded, "It's good to know you've been spending your time wisely as a princess, but I believe I still have yet to show you the ropes, Twilight. Or shall I say, Princess Sparkle?" She smirked slightly as she nudged the small alicorn gently.

"Princess Celestia…" Twilight blushed; the princess thing was still foreign to her – despite the fact that she'd been one for more than a year now.

Celestia giggled softly, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon enough…" Those words felt like déjà vu to the both of them.

"I'll leave you two to yourselves," Nightfall said as she stood up, making his way back inside. Looking to Twilight, he spoke once more, "I'll be downstairs if you need me…"

"Okay," she embarrassingly whispered to him, trying not to seem rude in front of Celestia.

After Nightfall walked away, Celestia grinned at realization of the feelings the two obviously had for each other. "You're in love with him, aren't you, Twilight?"

Twilight blushed and began stuttering quickly as she looked back to Celestia with wide eyes, "Wh-What? Princess Celestia, I –"

"It's fine. Love isn't a bad thing, you know," she said with a calming tone.

Before the smaller alicorn could reply, a sudden bright light flashed across the balcony, allowing Discord to appear next to Celestia, leaning against her gently as he agreed with the princess, sliding on a pair of shades, "Yeah; it's not bad at all. Look at me and Tia, for example!" Smirking, the draconequus chuckled softly at the Celestia, who was blushing like crazy.

"Discord," Celestia said with a mumble as she gestured to her student with her eyes. That was all he needed to get the hint.

"Oh!" He threw his shades to the side and floated over to Twilight, "Why hello princess! How do you do this lovely night?" Using his magic to make a top hat appear on his head, Discord took it from his head and bowed.

Giggling, Twilight spoke back to the draconequus with the best 'fancy' tone she could, "I'm fine, Discord. How have you been, my good sir?"

He dropped his hat and stared at the young princess with a bland expression. "Not trying to be rude, but that was one of the worst fancy impersonations I've seen in millennia; right next to Tia's try when she was only a young mare."

Both princesses stared to him with anger burning in their eyes. They said not one word, but Discord knew what they were saying. In attempts to save himself from their scowls, he quickly raised his paw and claw in defense. "It was just a joke!"

"Sure it was," Twilight said as she rolled her eyes. With a soft smirk on her face, she started off to the stairs; she was heading to the party. "I'll leave the balcony to you two; it seems like you could use the time together." With that, she was off.

Standing next to Celestia once more, Discord laid his arm around her, causing her to blush madly. With a smirk, he looked up to the stars in the night sky, in which she did the same. "Remind you of old times, Tia?"

She nodded and smiled softly as she went down memory lane, remembering the times where she and Discord were one of the most beautiful, yet most looked-down-upon couples in Equestria, "Yeah…"

* * *

"WOO! PARTAAY!" Pinkie Pie screamed as she threw her forelegs in the air, being the only pony dancing in the entire party; everypony else was either tired from dancing or just plain tired. It was about time that the party drew to an end anyway – besides, most ponies were leaving out the door, telling the other Elements of Harmony to let Twilight know that the party was a blast. "Come on Dashie; aren't you going to dance?!"

Leaning back on one of the couches, the light blue pegasus groaned and shook her head, "Not now, Pinkie… I think I ate too much ice cream…"

"Hah, and I still feel fine after winning that ice cream eating contest," Spike bragged arrogantly as he walked into the room, a tub of ice cream in his arms.

"Hey, I already ate before I got here, okay?!" Rainbow snapped at the dragon; she _hated_ losing.

Laughing victoriously, the dragon tossed a spoon of ice cream into his mouth. "_Sure_ you did!" After chomping the blob of ice cream in his mouth, Spike noticed Twilight coming down the stairs. "Oh, hey Twilight!" He exclaimed happily with ice cream in his mouth.

"Hey, Spike" she said with a smile. Then, she stopped, blinked, and stared at him with a confused expression, "Wait… You aren't with Rarity?" That was something new.

The dragon sighed and shook his head, "Nah, she said she needed to finish a line of dresses by tomorrow. She wanted me to tell you that the party was a blast, she just wished that there was a little more 'class' in it – whatever that means…" Then, he looked up optimistically, "I really don't mind though; I got a kiss."

With a sigh, Twilight rolled her eyes; he was supposed to be through with his childish dreams. "Spike, I already -"

"It's true, Twi," Applejack said as she swept the floor, cleaning the trash that the ponies left on the floor. "He was as happy as a baby bird in the spring when she kissed 'im."

She felt her heart skip a beat as her jaw dropped in awe. "_What?!_"

Fluttershy came gently floating above the lavender alicorn, holding a large bucket of confetti, "Of course it wasn't on the lips, though. It was a friendly kiss on the cheek." A small blush covered her cheeks as she spoke of the concept of kissing; it was **_really _**embarrassing to her.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and nodded, "Okay; that makes more sense…"

Mumbling, Spike walked off eating his ice cream, "Still counts as a kiss…"

Before the princess could call after him and prove him wrong, she was greeted by Princess Luna, who was standing next to an undeniably familiar figure. "Twilight, hello!"

Twilight turned around quickly and smiled brightly, "Luna! It's been so long!" After sharing a quick hug with the older princess, she looked to the colt next to her. "Who's your friend?"

Luna blinked a few times and questioned the smaller alicorn, "Do you not remember Sir Blackheart?"

"_That's _Blackheart?!" She raised her voice and pointed at the black-coated stallion, surprise trailing through within her tone.

"Pleased to meet you," he said with a straight face, taking a small bow as he put a hint of offense in his voice.

The princess's eyes went wide as she sheepishly giggled, "Sorry… I just thought –"

He angrily cut her off, his normally brown eyes filling with a red flame, "That they'd lock me away and put me in a prison forever? That they'd –"

Luna stepped between the two and first started with the stallion, "Blackheart! This is no way a prince should act amongst fellow royalty!" Then, she turned to Twilight, "Twilight, we believe that _Prince _Blackheart has the ability to be reformed – completely. You can see has yet to complete his reformation."

"Yeah, I think I'll leave him be for now; he seems pretty angry," Twilight said with an irritated tone.

Luna sighed and shook her head; she wanted the greeting to go well, not _that _way. "Alright… It's been nice seeing you again, Twilight." She flashed a soft smile, in which Twilight reflected kindly.

Turning away from the two alicorns, who were now arguing as if they were a couple, Twilight smirked slightly and began putting the pieces of the puzzle together. It wasn't long until she confirmed her hunch and said almost childishly in her mind, "_Luna likes Blackheart!" _She rolled her eyes and shook the thought out of her head, reasoning that it was ridiculous, but she couldn't help but believe it was true.

"Twilight!" Another familiar tone called after the princess, but this one was much lighter than the others.

The lavender alicorn looked back to where she heard the voice coming from and smiled joyfully as she identified the filly. "Dawn!"

She hopped onto her horn and hugged it, giggling happily as she did so. Giggling as well, Twilight used her magic to pull the filly off of her horn and hug her before setting her gently on the ground.

"Guess what, guess what, guess what!" The filly bounced up and down with pure excitement as she spoke quickly, joy sparkling in her large, purple eyes.

"What is it?" Twilight asked with a grin.

Dawn started her story, her voice full of enthusiasm and happiness, "So, today, my brother and I came back to move here because he said he missed you and begged our mommy and daddy to come here," she stopped to take a breath. And then, she started again, "We ran into these other ponies who let me join their group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders and we have a cool tree-house, adventures, and even our own theme song! Do you want to hear it?!"

Twilight blinked a few times, trying her best to process everything she just heard. After thinking for a second, she realized that it was pretty much the same story that Nightfall told her. Speaking of Nightfall, she had to tell him something – something she took pretty long to realize. "Uhm, not right now, but I'll listen to it later. Dawn, do you know where your brother is?"

"The last time I saw him, he told me he was going to take a walk in the meadows," she replied to the question innocently.

"Alright, I'll be right back; I need to tell him something. Tell everypony else I'm with him, okay?" After receiving a nod from the filly, Twilight used her magic and teleported with a bright flash, disappearing from the library within an instant.

Rainbow Dash sighed and shook her head in annoyance, "She was in the middle of the room, she could've told us ourselves." The pegasus began to wonder why her friend didn't do that, and she came up with one logical explanation. "_Eggheads,_" she thought.

* * *

Nightfall was calmly staring up at the sky, the soft wind blowing through his dark blue mane and soothing his thoughts. The moon's light lit up the meadows and gently shined down on the grass, sparkling in the colt's eyes. He was thinking about everything that had happened the past year, the ponies he'd met, the new life he had gained, the princess he came to love… It was all so amazing that he had to make sure it was real, and thinking it out was the best way for him.

Suddenly, a loud 'bang' cut off his thoughts, causing him to wince at the sudden sound and turn around quickly. "Wh-Who's there?!"

"Don't worry so much," said a soft, calm voice that came from the bright flash of light. "It's just me," Twilight said as the light of her magic faded out, revealing the smiling lavender alicorn.

"Oh," he said with a blush of embarrassment, "Sorry…"

Twilight stepped forward and stood face-to-face with the colt, jumping right to the point with him; she had to let him know how she felt. "Nightfall, I need to tell you something."

The colt nodded and smiled as he looked into the purple eyes of the beautiful princess, "Okay… What's up?"

"I… I don't know how to tell you this but… When we first met, I thought you were… Attractive," she paused and blushed. Yep, this was going to be embarrassing. "I've never felt such a way about a colt, and I thought it was a phase I'd go through; my books told me so. I tried to fight off the feelings, but during those days when we were going to the Crystal Empire to Canterlot, I realized something…"

"And what would that be?" Nightfall asked with a soft smile, pressing his nose gently against hers.

She blushed and stared him in his eyes, speaking once more, "I learned something. When I met you, I learned that friendship isn't the only magic between ponies that exists in Equestria. I once asked Princess Cadance about this 'other magic', and she told me that if I wanted to know what it was, I'd have to find it. Now I see that magic… That _feeling_… Is love!" Twilight paused for a second before she could actually say what she needed to say. "Nightfall…"

"Yeah?" The colt replied, his heart skipping multiple beats; he was so happy! For so long, he'd been worrying that Twilight didn't feel the same way about him after he showed his feelings back at the Crystal Empire, but now, his dream was coming true.

"I love you," she said softly as she leaned into the colt and pressed her lips gently against his, sharing a kiss under the moonlight. She closed her eyes as she kissed the colt, who had done the exact same. Now, they both could realize that this was the true feeling of love.

They pulled away from the kiss, blushing hard and soon enough, they looked in two opposite directions. They still had a _long _way to go before being comfortable with their feelings.

After a few minutes, they both were sitting on the ground, silently picking at flowers or grass, or sometimes even just staring into each others' eyes at moments. Twilight smiled softly as she looked up to the stars, which dotted the night sky like white fireflies. The scenery reminded the princess of something, a moment that had brought them together like this for the first time. Remembering that moment, Twilight leaned against him and laid her head on his shoulder as she looked up to him, "The stars are beautiful tonight, aren't they?"

Nightfall chuckled softly before nodding and looking her deep in the eyes, paying more attention to her beauty than the stars, "Yeah… They are."

**_THE END_**

* * *

**And here comes the love I've been waiting to give you guys for so long! xD Thank you ALL for coming out and joining me on this entire journey for the past four (or more) months. I just want to say that I'm proud of being a brony; Friendship is Magic has shown me that after 12 years of dealing with hardship and problems in life, friends are one of the main things that will get you out of them. It's let me learn multiple lessons and meet new people, and I'm absolutely glad to have met them. FiM has given me a new sight on life itself and… Well, I thank Hasbro and Lauren Faust for letting it come to be – you guys are awesome. **

** Now, back to A Change of Heart; I'm going to let you all know that there will be a sequel to this story, but I might not be posting it as my next work. We don't know until then, though, right? As you all supported this story, I hope you will support the sequel when I post it. I love you, my bronies and pegasisters! :D **

**Now the commendations of this rather long author's notes; I specifically thank these following people for helping me get this story to where it is now. **

**First off, I thank my younger brother – whom I'll call 'Nacho' – for listening to me when I stressed out whenever I got stuck on a part of a chapter. He's given me ideas for the story and I've definitely used them, and I can see that all you guys liked it. **

** Secondly, I thank Lord Lycaon, another FanFiction brony with multiple MLP fanfics who helped me start this up. Before I posted this, I sent him the document of my work and asked him if it was fine; I was so nervous because it was my first My Little Pony fanfiction. x3 Soon, it'd turn out that this story would be better than I expected it to be. **

** Third, I want to thank Igyaro, who also is a FanFiction brony with a MLP fanfic. He has given me ideas for certain chapters and lifted my spirits when they were low. If not for him, some crucial parts would be missing in this story. **

**Finally, I want to thank the following FanFiction members who either reviewed, favorited, or followed this story (or even all of the above! :D);**

**1troublesomeguy; Dragon Roberts; INSIDETwilight; Lithuania12393; NightFuryx; Pikachu913; ThavidoZeroX; Tw1 Spark1e; Ultimoto The Great; gh152 the 2****nd****; mirul1996; mooneyboys; rigifan32; splattyhart; Singer The Pegasus; deafears14; desertsea; rainbowofdarkness98; and scenariocreator.**

** Oh, and thank you all, even if you didn't review or stuff like that; I appreciate your time to check out my work. Well, it seems like this is where we depart… But not for long, for I shall return with my works and satisfy your brains out! (Does that make sense? e.e")**

** Anywho, thank you SO much for reading 60,419 words of my work and I can't wait until we meet again with another fanfiction. Until next time my bronies and pegasisters. – ****_This is your friendly neighborhood Frozen Agent, signing off._**** *Brohoof***


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